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Micro Business Hub Coming to East Williamsburg, Developer Says

By Gwynne Hogan | January 4, 2016 4:27pm
 A vacant lot will be transformed into a commercial space with small offices for local makers, tech start ups and small scale manufacturers, its developers said.
A vacant lot will be transformed into a commercial space with small offices for local makers, tech start ups and small scale manufacturers, its developers said.
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DNAinfo/Gwynne Hogan

EAST WILLIAMSBURG — You've heard of micro-hotel rooms and micro-apartments — now developers are downsizing for commercial spaces — providing tiny spots for micro-businesses.

A four-story commercial building planned by Bushwack Capital on the site of a vacant East Williamsburg lot will offer office space to businesses with less than four employees with the goal of helping out local entrepreneurs and feeding into the DIY spirit of the neighborhood, the developers said.

The 58 Grattan St. project, located between Knickerbocker and Morgan avenues, is meant to address a dearth of commercial spaces for small-scale entrepreneurs in the Bushwick-Williamsburg area.

"We couldn't make spaces small enough for them," Dawson Stellberger, a managing partner at the development company, said of the other nearby ventures, including one at 99 Scott St. where they're building office spaces, a winery and a beer garden. "[We had to] turn tenants away."

The seven offices at the Grattan Street location will each be about around 650 square feet, and accommodate small producers like jewelry makers, clothing manufacturers, food producers, tech companies and screen printers, the developers said.

"[They're] small businesses that don't need a lot of space, but that can create and contribute to the economy on a smaller scale," said Frank St. Jacques, a lawyer representing Bushwack.

Leah Archibald, the director of Evergreen, a coalition of local manufactures and businesses in North Brooklyn, wrote a letter in support of the development.

"They're dividing it up into small units which is where the market demand in our community is right now," said Archibald. "It's really hard to find... small [spaces] for these small manufacturers."

Bushwack Capital, which is also building a nightclub with a rooftop bar at 599 Johnson Ave., bought the vacant lot for $855,000 in 2014, according to property records.

The Grattan Street project is one of a handful reported in the past week to happen in the rapidly developing area of East Williamsburg.

Three blocks away, the Rabsky Group is purchasing a warehouse at 471-485 Johnson Ave. for $48 million to turn into office space, the Real Deal reported last week.

And at 71 White St., developers are planning on gutting a graffiti-covered warehouse and turning it into a boutique hotel, while maintaining the colorful facade, according to Brownstoner.