Industry City says hello to Gap Design Studio and goodbye to MakerBot

Sunset Park’s Industry City continues to go through massive changes, both welcoming companies as well as saying goodbye to one.

It was announced that the 16- building, six million-square foot space would soon be adding Gap Inc. to its growing list of companies, set to call Industry City home this spring.

Gap is slated to open a 20,000-square-foot photo and design studio at the complex.

CEO of Industry City Andrew Kimball is excited with the addition. “Industry City’s unique combination of established companies like Gap Inc. and wide range of start-ups makes for a truly dynamic environment not found elsewhere in New York City,” he said. “Gap Inc. will further augment the property’s growing innovation economy ecosystem that is merging design, tech and fashion into one collaborative community.”

The deal includes a 10-year lease that was negotiated by Eric Deutsch and Jason Pollen of CBRE Group on behalf of Gap Inc., and by Brett Harvey and Jeff Fein of Industry City’s internal leasing team for Industry City.

Local residents are apprehensive about the news.

“I welcome job opportunities to Sunset but can’t help but notice the irony of the Gap coming here and illustrating the growing gap we have between the haves and have-nots in Sunset,” said Tony Giordano, founder of the Sunset Parker Facebook page. “Jamestown Properties’ Industry City keeps trying to market our working class neighborhood as the next hipster hotspot and ignores the needs of the local residents.  We need a ‘reworking’ of the 1960s’ ‘Career Ladders for the Poor’ concept that led to new classes of employment – paraprofessionals in education, paralegals in law and paramedics in health. Today we need just such a program for the high-paying jobs in the tech industry and the service industry.”

Gap will occupy the waterfront property’s Building 4, 88 35th Street, with the space being used to photograph products and design marketing materials. It will join other fashion and design companies such as West Elm, Design Within Reach, Malia Mills, Material Wrld and The Line.

Although Industry City gains a company, it will lose the presence of another in MakerBot. After the desktop 3D printer company celebrated the opening of its new and larger factory last summer, it was announced on Monday, April 25 that it had partnered with Jabil, a Florida-based company, resulting in the outsourcing of production to China and leaving Sunset.

“To achieve our long-term goals, we also need to be able to navigate the volatility of an emerging market. Working with Jabil will position us to better manage the rapid change in our industry and reduce our manufacturing costs to compete more effectively in a global marketplace,” explained the company’s CEO Jonathan Jaglom in a statement. “We expect that adopting a flexible manufacturing model will allow us to quickly scale production up or down based on market demands, without the fixed costs associated with maintaining a factory in New York City.”