Brooklyn Storehouse from above (Courtesy TCE Presents & Broadwick Live)
A massive events space is coming to the Brooklyn Navy Yard
The giant Brooklyn Storehouse will open June 7. Meanwhile, a pair of venues also hopes to open across town in Greenpoint
New York’s hottest new venue is … in the Brooklyn Navy Yard? On June 7, the Navy Yard’s Building 293 will transform into a 104,000-square-foot live events venue, aptly titled the Brooklyn Storehouse.
The 5,000-capacity venue has already begun hosting A-list events, including a celeb-packed Ralph Lauren fashion show in the fall. The popular French electronic duo Justice has by now sold out two July concerts at the venue, which they described as simply the “Brooklyn Navy Yard” in their marketing earlier this year.
The Storehouse’s cavernous customizable interior (Photo by Phillip Reed)
Unlike the ornately designed Paramount Theater, which reopened in Downtown Brooklyn in March, the Brooklyn Storehouse is more of a black box venue that will be continuously reconfigured and transformed “to create a wide array of spatial environments,” according to a spokesperson. “Complete set builds, fashion shows, innovative, experience-led music shows, immersive art exhibitions, summits and brand activations represent just a few examples of activities that will be taking place within the fully customizable space.”
The Storehouse’s opening could mark another milestone in the gradual shifting of mainstream dance halls and corporate event spaces from Manhattan to Brooklyn. The many troubles at one of the borough’s top electronic music spaces, the Brooklyn Mirage’s Avant Gardner in Williamsburg, also offers an opening for a newcomer to make waves.
“The top goal of our development is that it becomes a global institution and urban landmark,” says Luke Huxham, an executive at the Broadwick Group, a British venue development company that has partnered on the project with the similarly-focused stateside group TCE Presents.
That group’s portfolio includes Teksupport, the Brooklyn-based company that has become one of the world’s top tastemakers in the electronic music concert promotion scene.
“As a native New Yorker, born in the boroughs, creating something at this scale in this location, that will bring jobs and world class culture into the heart of Brooklyn, is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” says Rob Toma, the founder of TCE Presents, in a press release on Tuesday.
The Navy Yard was an active Navy shipyard and shipbuilding hub from the 1810s until 1966. It has since been largely repurposed into an industrial park tourist attraction, although several small businesses maintain offices there, too.
But the Storehouse isn’t the only new event space on the Brooklyn block. In fact, one block in Greenpoint is about to get two new dance music venues.
Tao — known for its clubby upscale restaurants — is set to open a new location on Franklin Street, which formerly housed the House of Vans indie venue (RIP to a good one). And another new development called Deuces — which plans to be an after-school center for kids during the day and a dance hall at night — is slated to open across the street. But the local community board involved in approving the projects was not riveted by either proposal, as Greenpointers reports.
