Empire Stores

Tour Summary:A successful public-private partnership led to a sparkling development on the Brooklyn waterfront, where a massive, long-disused, 19th-century coffee bean warehouse reopened in 2017 as Empire Stores, a 21st-century assemblage of stores, dining, a private club, premium tech offices, and extension of the lush Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The site’s location 20 feet from the East River made it a jewel in need of protection. Superstorm Sandy exposed the risk in 2012, when it inundated the ground floor with seven-foot waves and knocked out columns. Even as engineers calculated how to turn the 400,000–square-foot raw space into a destination, the team reckoned with ways to separate the series of historic arched brick buildings from the same waterline that would attract visitors and tenants. 

ULI has twice recognized the Empire Stores development for excellence: As a case study exemplifying best practices in preparing for and mitigating the impacts of rising seas, and as a winner of the ULI Global Awards for Excellence, the Institute’s highest honor for outstanding real estate development projects globally.

Walk through and around Empire Stores and Brooklyn Bridge Park in this 360-degree tour. You’ll hear directly about the project from the developer, architects, landscape architect, and a local historian through video and audio interviews embedded in every scene.

An in-depth case study of this development project is available here.