Manhattan or Brooklyn? There was never a question, according Etsy’s chief executive. The e-commerce business, which focuses on vintage and handmade products, currently operates out of an 80,000-square-foot property on Washington Street in Dumbo. Now the company has signed a lease in the same neighborhood, only this time for 200,000 square feet on Adams Street.
Etsy’s lease represents one of the biggest Brooklyn office transactions in the last 10 years. The new space used to be a Jehovah’s Witnesses property, but Etsy plans to make its own mark by building a roof deck and installing signs that draw attention to the company’s new location. There are also plans to hold engineering talks and craft nights.
A Fort Greene apartment was Etsy’s first home in 2005. Now the company has offices in Hudson, New York, and Dumbo, and the state has successfully kept Etsy local by providing $5 million in tax breaks. The company now plans to put $38 million into the upstate offices and the new offices at Adams Street. As part of the deal with the state, Etsy is also expected to add 340 employees by 2019, which would bring the company’s total number of workers to 740. More than 300 of the new jobs are expected to open up in the Brooklyn location.
Expanding into a larger commercial space is a complicated but necessary endeavor for many businesses. Regardless of the size of your expansion, it is extremely important to conduct due diligence and protect against liability down the road. Disputes can arise under a variety of circumstances, and landlords and tenants alike should have skilled legal representation to cover all of the bases.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, “Etsy Sews Up Bigger Space in Brooklyn,” Laura Kusisto, May 13, 2014