West Elm, home furnishings giant, joins design community at Industry City

Home furnishings chain West Elm, which started in Brooklyn and now is active worldwide, has now opened in Industry City, the 16-building shipping, warehousing, manufacturing and retail complex on the Sunset Park waterfront.

West Elm now joins other design stores within Industry City’s ‘Brooklyn Design District” hub. Among them are Pocelanosa, Design Within Reach, Restoration Hardware, Flavor Pager, Christopher Pourny Studio, cityFoundry, Micol Ceramics and more, according to Industry City.

West Elm’s new 15,000-square-foot location showcases the brand’s own modern designs. Since 2015, Industry City also has housed the allied West Elm Makers Studio, a creative workspace for artists, photographers, designers and craftsmen.

“West Elm is a Brooklyn-born brand, and it is only fitting that they open their first NYC-based outlet at Industry City,” said Jim Somoza, director of development for Industry City. “The new location sits among the best-in-class design retail with Design Within Reach, Restoration Hardware, ABC Carpet & Home and Porcelanosa, while also part of a broader creative community of furniture retailers, makers, architects and design firms.”

“West Elm’s target customers are apartment dwellers and young professionals,” says furniture.com, a home furnishings industry website.

The interior of West Elm in Industry City, showing the firm’s trademark modern-style furniture. Photo courtesy of Industry City

Historically, what is now known as Industry City was part of Bush Terminal, founded in the early 1900s, which was at one time the largest multi-tenant industrial facility in the United States. It was affected by the general decline of manufacturing in New York after World War II. In 2013, a consortium of Belvedere Real Estate Partners, Jamestown Properties, and Angelo, Gordon & Co. purchased Industry City and began to redevelop it.

Today, among Industry City’s best-known tenants are the Brooklyn Nets’ training center, the Hospital for Special Surgery training complex, a job training center called Innovation Lab, Sahadi’s, and Japan Village, with a large Japanese grocery, Japanese specialty shops and restaurants. Industry City as a whole has also become a destination, with restaurants and live music.

During the past six years, Industry City has invested over $450 million into the property and leased more than 3 million square feet of space. During this period, businesses based at the property have collectively grown by an average of 100 jobs per month, according to Industry City.

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