Millennium Partners to build Brooklyn entertainment center

Real Estate Weekly, August 12, 1998

Brooklyn Commons will offer the region a state-of-the-art entertainment complex featuring a major Loews Theatres multiplex, an athletic facility for more than half a dozen sports, national and local retailers and family-oriented restaurants.

Brooklyn Commons will be built on Second Avenue between 9th and 12th streets, adjacent to the Park Slope and Carroll Gardens neighborhoods, and on the site of a former United States Postal Service facility. Ground-breaking is expected by the end of this year, with completion scheduled for mid-year 2000.

Millennium Partners is developing nearly $2 billion of mixed-use real estate nationwide, and is the developer of Lincoln square, which has been the focal point of the emergence of the Lincoln Center area as one of New York City's premier shopping and residential locations. Millennium also developed the Star Southfield Entertainment Center in Southfield, Michigan, which has consistently set record-breaking attendance levels nationwide since its opening in June of 1997.

The Lincoln square Complex in Manhattan houses the highest grossing multiplex theater in the country.

"We are thrilled to be coming to Brooklyn with a development that will give residents a place of entertainment, leisure and shopping in an area that has long been underserved," said Christopher M. Jeffries, president and a founding principal, Millennium Partners. "Having built entertainment centers of this kind before, we are confident that New York City residents and visitors will find this to be an exciting gathering place to socialize and be entertained, and a source of pride for Brooklyn."

The Brooklyn Commons complex, situated on a 9.4-acre site, will feature:

* A 5,000 seat, 22-screen Loews Theatre multiplex with stadium-style seating on stepped-up risers to maximize site lines, which will be one of the largest and most technically advanced complexes in the country;

* A recreational component that will house a bowling alley and a multi-sport athletic center;

* Approximately 50,000 square feet of family-oriented restaurants;

* A combination of major national retailers as well as first-rate local retailers; and

* A 1,500-car parking garage.

Jed Marcus, CEO of Insite, Millennium's local partner, noted that in the planning of Brooklyn Commons, Millennium Partners has worked closely with New York City officials and neighborhood civic groups, and strong consideration was given to such issues as traffic, beautification of the neighborhood and local employment.

The site is easily accessible to the Gowanus/Brooklyn Queens Expressway, easily accessible from several major traffic arteries, and serviced by both subway and bus lines. Millennium Partners estimates that the project will create 1,250 construction jobs, and approximately 440 full-time jobs, once the center opens.

"We believe the Brooklyn Commons will provide significant economic, social and lifestyle benefits to Brooklyn," said Marcus. "In addition to building this center, we are committed to working with our neighbors to improve the community. We are excited about providing pedestrian access to the Gowanus Canal in an effort to spark the redevelopment of what will ultimately be a major amenity to the community."

"Working with Millennium we have found a winning formula, combining entertainment and retail in an urban family center," said Lawrence Ruisi, president and CEO of Loews Cineplex Entertainment. "We believe Brooklyn provides an ideal location to bring state-of-the-art movie and related entertainment."

Millennium Partners, headquartered in New York City, is the international real estate development firm that pioneered the urban living and entertainment center concept. The company has assembled some of the world's leading retailers, sports and entertainment companies, and financial institutions to create intelligent, large-scale urban developments that respond to a resurgent demand for dynamic city living.

Millennium Partners has attracted prominent institutions and individuals as financial partners, including Goldman Sachs' Whitehall Fund; financier George Soros and his Quantum Realty Fund Limited; Citicorp Real Estate N.A.; and a consortium of German financial institutions led by ERGO Versicherungs Gruppe AG.

With nearly $2 billion of mixed-use real estate currently under construction in Boston, New York, Miami, San Francisco, Washington, D. C. and Toronto, Millennium Partners is in the process of expanding its highly successful Lincoln square concept in other major U.S. cities.