Will Industry City be the next Navy Yard?

It seems like a strange move: to go all out for publicity about rehabbing old industrial space and welcoming artists, only to kick them out four years later, with less than a month’s notice. That’s what Industry City Associates did earlier this year, however, at Building 9, a space largely occupied by creatives.

But the shake up may be a bump in a bigger goal: could Industry City be the next biggest revitalization and innovation project in Brooklyn?

In April, Industry City Associates notified many occupants that they needed to leave by the end of the month, to make way for a more lucrative tenant. The urgency may have been driven by financial troubles the landlords ran into last year.

Now, Jamestown Properties, the company behind transforming 111 Eighth Ave, in Manhattan, which was bought by Google for $2 billion two years ago, has its eye on Industry City. It hopes to have a deal for the property in place by October.

The most intriguing aspect of this deal: Andrew Kimball. The man who led the transformation of the Navy Yard into what it is today before leaving, is now working at Jamestown Properties. Jamestown executives will install Kimball would as the chief executive of Industry City if the deal goes through, reports Crains.

Industry City now lists hundreds of thousands of square feet in available technology, R&D, industrial, office and industrial space. Some of the amenities they list for various tenants on their website:

• On site utility power, adding an extra 30 megawatts
• Freight elevator access, up to 5,000 pounds
• Ample common areas, for collaboration, and parking
• “Diverse underground fiber optic backbones with assorted laterals and building points of entry”

It will also be the site of the 2013 Vendy Awards, for the best in streetside food services, and is currently home to Industry City Distillery, makers of Industry Standard, a beet sugar vodka. If you don’t have plans for Labor Day, they are having a party in Sunset Park.

Formerly known as Bush Terminal, Industry City occupies 40 acres in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, including 16 of the original buildings. It was formerly the largest multi-tenant industrial property in the United States, housing warehousing, manufacturing and shipping operations.