Jared Kushner and LIVWRK in Contract to Buy Big Gowanus Property

Jared Kushner and LIVWRK have made a deal to buy a large development site on 3rd Street next to the Gowanus Canal for $70,000,000 to $80,000,000, The Real Deal reported. The 133,000-square-foot property at 175-225 3rd Street allows for a commercial development of  up to 300,000 square feet, but a source told The Real Deal that a million-square-foot residential development could be built if the site is rezoned. That would rival Lightstone’s planned 700-unit rental project at 363 Bond Street, just across the canal.

The block-long site has 600 feet of frontage on 3rd Street between 3rd Avenue and the canal and could have up to 150,000 square feet of retail. Whole Foods is across the street, and “in the shopping center world, having Whole Foods as an anchor is like going to the ball with one of the belles,” one commercial broker told TRD. The site is also right next to the graffiti-covered Gowanus Batcave, which is being slowly decontaminated by owner Joshua Rechnitz. The seller is a family who has owned the two properties for over 60 years. Verizon currently parks its telecom trucks in the two vacant lots.

LIVWRK and Kushner, along with RFR Realty and Invesco Real Estate, are, of course, the team that is developing the former Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower printing properties into a 1.2-million-square-foot office campus called Dumbo Heights.

Rezoning commercial property in Gowanus to residential has been controversial and there is no guarantee. Councilman Brad Lander recently ripped into developers who buy Gowanus property at residential prices thinking they will be able to rezone:

“Let me be clear: Those who are paying big price tags for industrial buildings in Gowanus and demolishing historic structures on the assumption that they will be able to build market-rate condo buildings like those on 4th Avenue are making a big mistake,” he said.

Kushner, LIVWRK Grab Big Gowanus Development Site [TRD]
Photo by Kate Leonova for PropertyShark