Massive WeWork Office Building Opens At Brooklyn Navy Yard

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — A giant new office building that extends into the East River officially opened its doors Tuesday at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, bringing six new floors of space for troubled co-working company WeWork.

The 16-story building, known as Dock 72 for its proximity to the newest NYC Ferry Stop, launched with a ribbon cutting ceremony where developers lauded its spot at the waterfront as an addition to the borough's tech hub.

So far, WeWork is the building's only tenant and will take up about a third of the building's 675,000 square feet of space, which includes six outdoor terraces, its own health and wellness center and an expensive food hall that will get help from Shake Shack restauranteur Danny Meyer.

“Dock 72 is the new home for ideas and innovation," said John Powers, an executive with Boston Properties, which developed the building with Rudin Development and WeWork. "This Class-A office structure will fast become the new gold standard for developers. It was built to be functional, sustainable, and resilient, all while giving tenants top-tier amenities and panoramic views of the Manhattan and Brooklyn skylines.”

(Contributed Photo). The ribbon cutting at Dock 72 on Tuesday.

The building's opening did not make mention of WeWork's recent difficulties. The new building, as the New York Post noted, comes at a time when the office rental company has just ousted its founder as CEO, aborted its IPO and is considering bailout deals to keep it from bankruptcy.

Dock 72 developers told the Post they are confident WeWork will get through its "short-term issues," but that if they did end up going under there are "letters of credit" that would keep the office space afloat.

The new office building is the first ground-up commercial development in Brooklyn in the last decade, developers said.

It comes with 35,000 square feet of indoor amenities, including its food hall, event facility and health and wellness center. Outside, tenants can use a half-court basketball court with stadium seating and outdoor terraces on six of the building's floors.

(Dock 72) Rendering of the inside of the building.

The hope is that the building will draw tech, hardware and design companies that want to work near the Brooklyn Navy Yard's long line of similar tenants, Yard President David Ehrenberg said.

"Dock 72 is a central component of the Navy Yard's largest expansion since WWII, which will bring us to 20,000 jobs by 2021," Ehrenberg said.