WILLIAMSBURG — A massive commercial building is being planned for a spot considered part of Brooklyn's hottest real estate.
Thor Equities, which owns retail properties across the city, announced it paid $30 million for 180 Bedford Ave., at North Seventh Street, a long-vacant property that once housed a Salvation Army.
The company plans to build a 14,500 square foot retail building with a 2,500 square foot rooftop terrace.
While Thor Equities didn't specify future tenants, it mentioned other corporate businesses that have made inroads into Williamsburg like Apple, Whole Foods, Dr. Martens, Ralph Lauren and Levi’s.
Rental prices along Bedford Avenue rival those of Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles and, as of this winter, they were the highest of any retail corridor in the Brooklyn, surpassing the Fulton Mall Area for the first time.
And despite the looming L train shutdown scheduled to cut off service into Manhattan beginning in 2019, retail prices continue to climb. It was most recently $373 per square foot, according to a September report from the Real Estate Board of New York.
The Thor Equities deal announced Friday shaved $6 million off an earlier price that had emerged during the nearly two year long negotiations, the Real Deal reported.
The Salvation Army building on that corner was demolished in 2013.
