The GMDC is a completely unique setup – a nonprofit landlord renting space to small manufacturers. Brian talked to us about the future of urban manufacturing, and all the cool stuff that their tenants are making.
How is the GMDC different from other studio spaces in the city?
We like to describe ourselves as a bit of a benevolent landlord. When a check’s late, they don’t get a letter from a lawyer – we kind of work with them, and sometimes we’ll find out that this guy doesn’t have a lot of work but this guy does, and we put them together.
That’s incredible – definitely not your average building!
We do things that a traditional landlord wouldn’t do. We know a lot about the individual businesses. One of the reasons we know a lot is because they’re so interesting and cool, quite honestly! It’s true. It’s really true. Another reason we know is because the more we know about them, the more we can help them.
There’s a lot of cross-pollination. A lot of our tenants do work with other tenants. The metal spinner here at 1155 Manhattan Ave. makes all the lamp bases for our lamp manufacturer at 810 Humboldt St. You bring together all these creative people and they find a way to work together somehow.
Artists and artisans in New York are constantly getting kicked out of their studios – that’s another one of your draws, correct?
Exactly. We’re a bit of a port in a storm. Our phones are constantly ringing with people who say, “I was in this building for 18 months, and now the landlord wants to turn it into a condo.” We’re a non-profit organization. We’re not looking to say, “Hey, let’s flip this thing and build a condo!” They come to us for long-term stability, and because our lease rates are slightly below market rates.
Our minimum lease is 5 years, with an option for 10 years. Obviously people are concerned about how much they’re going to spend on rent, but they also need to know that if they come in here, set up their shop, build it our, spend 20, or 30, or $50K, whatever it costs them to move and set up their shop, that they’ll have 10 years when they’re not looking over their shoulder.
Could you talk a little about how the GMDC started, and what your mission was?
Sure. We started, actually, around saving this building – 1155/1205 Manhattan Avenue. In the mid-to-late 80s there was a loose group of small manufacturers here. A lot of woodworkers. But it was a little bit like the wild west – there were people living here, and there were parts of the facility that weren’t occupied. Then the property owner lost the building to the city for non-payment of taxes. The city started managing it, and they were strongly considering knocking it down.
Some of the legitimate manufacturers got together and tried to save the facility. This building is over 300,000 square feet! It’s long story, but in short, they were able to save it and the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center was created. The newly-formed GMDC bought this building from the city for $1. That was in the 80’s – that world doesn’t exist anymore.
That’s an amazing story. What happened once the GMDC owned the building?
The city gave us some money to begin fixing it up. That was 17 years ago. Then we went on to do a series of other projects – 810 Humboldt Street, 7 St. Nicholas, 132 Harrison Place, and most recently, 221 McKibbin Street. We bought these buildings from private property owners, and we put money into them and brought them to the marketplace for small manufacturers and artisans.
Can you tell us about your tenants, the small manufacturers that are based in the GMDC?
Our tenants are a really interesting group. This is kind of a snapshot of modern, urban manufacturing. Outside of some food processing and some bakeries that are still around, there aren’t very many large-scale manufacturers left in New York City. Or the Northeast, for that matter. But our tenants, we think, represent the future of urban manufacturing.
What kind of things are they making?
We have some traditional North Brooklyn woodworkers. Then we have someone like Richard Webber. If the Museum of Natural History finds a tyrannosaurus rex, and they don’t find all the bones, they bring the bones to him and he puts them together and builds a frame to support them.
That is so cool!
Yeah. He has specimens up in his shop that are millions of years old! It’s a very interesting, eclectic group. Another tenant is Irca Metals. Francisco is a metal spinner. He takes a flat piece of stock and puts it on a lathe and makes a light fixture, or a pizza pan, or an urn. We have a jewelry guy who takes antique bakelite plastic, adorns it with precious and semi-precious stones, and sells $20,000 bracelets to Barney’s. Again, it’s a very small, custom operation.
You guys are going to meet with Yvette Helin, right?
Yeah, we’re interviewing her next.
When you go up to her shop you’ll see Jimmy Neutron’s head. She made the costume for the Geico gecko! It’s a very creative, interesting shop. But she’s not turning out 100 of anything. It’s usually one or two very custom, specific things. Even our woodworkers are not high-volume manufacturers. They’re doing commissioned furniture, one-of-a-kind pieces. In the case of someone like Yvette Helin, she’s serving a very distinct commercial, theatrical niche. She needs to be here because her big clients are based on 42nd St.
The guy who’s doing jewelry needs to be here because the Barney’s buyers are in New York. And because he wants to have his bracelet on the next cover of Elle, and the magazines are all here too. The architectural woodworker needs to be here because he’s probably doing a fancy brownstone on the upper east side, or a board room on Park Avenue. We have another tenant, Milo Mottola, who has done the windows for the major department stores at Christmas-time. All the mechanical things, and all the creative things that go on, are done in his shop. He needs to be here because Saks Fifth Avenue’s creative director is coming over twice a week to see the progress.
The common theme is that they’re all small, custom, value-added manufacturers that need to be in New York City, because this is where their market is – they need to interact with their clients.
Stay tuned for interviews with a few of the manufacturers working out of the GMDC!