If Macy’s ever tried to throw their annual Thanksgiving Day parade along Downtown Brooklyn’s Fulton Mall instead of Manhattan’s Herald Square, the Snoopy balloon would soon have to float much higher.
That after Manhattan-based real estate giant Tishman Speyer bought the iconic Downtown Brooklyn Macy’s building at 422 Fulton Street for $170 million with plans to expand the property into 14 floors total and 378,000 square feet.
“As developer, owner and operator of such New York City icons as Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building, we are thrilled at the opportunity to partner with Macy’s for our first-ever project in Brooklyn,” Tishman Speyer Co-CEOs Jerry Speyer and Rob Speyer said in a statement Wednesday.
The development plan calls for Macy’s to continue to have the first four floors for their iconic store, which has continuously been a retail operation since 1865 – having first been developed by department store pioneers Abraham & Strauss.
Above the first four floors, Tishman Speyer will build an additional 10 floors for office space. The deal also includes the Macy’s Hoyt St. parking garage, and an additional $100 million over the next three years to build its new store. The parking garage has the potential to be redeveloped in a residential skyscraper.
The new Macy’s will be smaller than the existing store, but will carry more brands. Shoppers, and non-shoppers, can also visit the new in-store Starbucks.
The old building will also see some necessary repairs and the windows on the upper level will be redesigned to allow for more natural light. Additionally, the display windows, street level entrances, elevators, escalators, and restrooms will all get a modernized sprucing up.
Construction on both Macy’s and the office space will begin in spring 2016. The expected completion date is fall 2018. The store will remain open during renovation.
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Carlo Scissura and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Tucker Reed called the development a greatly needed addition to the Downtown Brooklyn landscape.
“Residents will have access to a fully renovated and high-quality Macy’s — that is sure to rival any department store on the planet — in a vibrant community, and Brooklyn finally gets the new, state-of-the-art office space it desperately needs and deserves,” the two Brooklyn boosters said in a joint statement.
