Big box stores may be coming to Sunset Park

Attention, shoppers!

Federal Building #2, located on Third Avenue between 30th and 32nd Streets in Sunset Park, could be home to a few big box stores, including Bed, Bath and Beyond and the Burlington Coat Factory.

Salmar Properties purchased the 1.1 million square foot building from the Economic Development Corporation in August 2011, promising to re-develop industry and bring jobs back to the community.

Community Board 7 held a public hearing on September 12, regarding an application submitted by Salmar to change the use of the first and second floors of the building.

“It’s fairly simple, a project we’ve been supporting for quite some time,” said Jeremy Laufer, district manager of Community Board 7. “We are supportive of increasing the size of commercial space.”

Laufer explained that the retailers will take up 15 percent of the building, which is roughly 180,000 square feet. The rest of the space will be left for manufacturing purposes.

Marvin Schein, co-owner of Salmar Properties, told this paper, “The major problem is that Sunset Park doesn’t have any retail stores and it needs them.” He added that there is not much empty space left in the community. “There are no more buildings in the Sunset Park area that have the room for a retail store like Macy’s or Bed Bath and Beyond, so we need something with more than 1,000 square feet,” Schein explained.

Federal Building #2 was built in 1916 as a warehouse for the U.S. Department of the Navy and was last occupied in 2000. It sits across the street from the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which was recently announced as being reactivated as a break-bulk maritime port with uses that include transporting waste more efficiently and cleanly.

The building is also home to the world’s largest rooftop garden, with 100,000 feet of space.

Members of Community Board 7 were officially voting on the issue as this paper went to press on September 19.