Opening at the Offerman Building: Nordstrom Rack and T.J. Maxx

Eye On Real Estate

April 30, 2014 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Screen Shot 2014-04-30 at 12.46.06 PM.png

Share this:

The upscaling of Fulton Mall takes another step forward this week with Nordstrom’s May 1 opening at the Offerman Building.

Yeah, so Nordstrom Rack’s the discount version of the posh retailer. So what? It’s a big-time credit-worthy tenant. There’s a Nordstrom Rack in Union Square. Now there will be one in Brooklyn, too.

Albert Laboz’s United American Land has another tenant opening May 1 in the landmarked building at 505 Fulton St: Popular discounter T.J. Maxx, which is part of a big publicly traded company.

The two newcomers join Swedish powerhouse retailer H&M, which moved in last summer to a modern glass box UAL constructed alongside the historic Offerman Building.

As construction fencing has been removed from the 1890s-vintage Romanesque Revival property, it has become ever more apparent what a superb job the developer has done restoring its exterior.

We can’t wait to see what it will look like inside – especially the upstairs floors, which UAL is turning into condos, published reports indicate. Here’s hoping there will be a model apartment when the condos hit the market.

Nordstrom Rack is joining the parade of big-name and national tenants that have marched into Fulton Mall in recent years, making it ever more upscale – and pushing rents along the 17-block Downtown Brooklyn retail corridor to the high $200s per square foot.

Fulton Street was Brooklyn’s go-to retail place for shoppers in the 19th Century and the first half of the 20th Century. It fell on hard times in the 1970s – but by the 1990s had rebounded as a big money-maker populated by mom-and-pop electronics and jewelry stores.

In recent years, the big names that have decided to make Fulton Mall their home run the gamut from Shake Shack to Swarovski.