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The former Jehovah's Witnesses complex in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood will now include a charter school.
Brooklyn Lab has signed a lease for the second through fifth floors, plus the 12th floor, of 77 Sands St. from owners Kushner Cos., LIVWRK and RFR Realty, the New York Post reports. The group purchased the buildings that make up the Dumbo Heights development from Jehovah's Witnesses in 2013 for $375M.
Brooklyn Lab, which also has locations in Downtown Brooklyn, will build out an 81K SF school with its own canopied entrance with input from students and parents and the help of architecture firm AKA Studio. The second through fifth floors will include classrooms, performance and assembly spaces and multipurpose rooms, while the 12th floor will be dedicated to student conference and presentation rooms for advanced placement projects, according to the Post.
Representatives from Brooklyn Lab noted Dumbo Heights' modern, tech-oriented tenants like WeWork and Etsy as driving factors in choosing 77 Sands St. Education technology firm 2U also leases space in the complex. Two different Newmark Knight Frank teams represented Brooklyn Lab and the owners in the lease, which was reportedly in the mid-$50s/SF range.
After joining in on the 1.2M SF Dumbo Heights purchase and redevelopment, RFR was rumored to partner with Kushner Cos. and LIVWRK for the acquisition of the Watchtower complex, but CIM Group became the third partner instead.
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