urban space

Downtown Brooklyn vendors are turning old shipping containers into stores - and a stalled construction site into a bustling market.

Dekalb Market is set to launch on the City Point site in the early summer - using 40 salvaged shipping containers from nearby ports to house chefs, artists, clothing makers and more.

“It’s even better than recycling,” said Eldon Scott, president of Urban Space, which is running the market.

Urban Space runs a similar shipping container market in London, but it hasn’t been done before in New York.

In addition to the vendors, the market will host a small farm with six farmers growing vegetables for chefs selling out of the containers to use in their dishes. There will also be a beer garden and a space for music and art performances.

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We’ve been remiss in not reporting on one of our favorite food-market projects to hit this city in years, one of those Big Ideas like Brooklyn Flea or New Amsterdam Market. That’s Dekalb Market, which is headed to the downtown Fulton Mall on the old Albee Square mall spot in downtown Brooklyn this summer. It’s a joint project from Urban Space (they run all those outdoor holiday markets, like one next to the Greenmarket in Union Square) and the real estate development company Youngwoo & Associates.

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We were fortunate to be able to interview, via email, the CEOs of Urban Space and ORE Design and Technology Group.  These two organizations are designing and building the Dekalb Market Project, which includes a competition we wrote about earlier in the week, and for which our CEO, Sarah Beatty, is a judge.  Below, they discuss the missions of their organizations, some of the plans for the project, and the deep commitment to sustainability they both have when beginning the design on a new project.  (A special thanks, as well, to Kat Popiel for facilitating this great interview!)

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What would summer in New York be without another market to ply the masses with artisan cupcakes and silk-screened onesies? It wouldn’t be summer in New York at all, particularly for Urban Space, the specialty retail market developer that’s planning to open a new market on Flatbush Avenue near Willoughby Street.

Called Dekalb Market, it’s a collaboration between Urban Space and Youngwoo & Associates, and will comprise a series of salvaged shipping containers. Scattered throughout those containers will be an assortment of food and crafts vendors, including, so far, Robicelli’s, Cuzin’s Duzin, and Joe Coffee. The market is still looking for “new passionate small businesses”; expect to see who they’ve found when the shipping containers open for business in early summer.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/2011/03/dekalb_market_t.php

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The Brooklyn Flea is leaving the downtown areafor Williamsburg this summer (that’s on Sundays; they’ll still be in Fort Greene on Saturdays), but a new food-friendly market is coming to the downtown area. Come early summer, Urban Space Management (operators of the Holiday Market at Union Square) and developer Youngwoo & Associates will set up shipping containers on a plot of land at Flatbush and Willoughby that will eventually become a part of Woo’s the CityPoint development. We’re told the salvaged containers will house food vendors such as Robicelli’s (the cupcake enterprise that used to have a store in Bay Ridge) and Cuzin’s Duzin (the cookie- and doughnut-maker that used to have a location at the Albee Square Mall). The outdoor portion of the DeKalb Market will serve as an educational farm hosting six local farmers, and there’ll be a market with a butcher, dairy products, and the like. The lineup is still coming together, and you can still apply to be a vendor— they’re giving preference to first-time retailers.

http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2011/03/robicellis_will_sell_cupcakes.html

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‘Not Just a Container’ challenges the design and business communities to transform shipping containers into creative and useful spaces for Brooklyn’s newest retail environment

Brooklyn, NY (March 9, 2011) — Urban Space presents ‘NOT JUST A CONTAINER’, a citywide competition for entrepreneurs to re-imagine empty shipping containers for use in a retail environment. The winning design will be built at Urban Space’s new Dekalb Market, a sustainable retail and community hub scheduled to open in Downtown Brooklyn in early summer.

Housed in a collection of salvaged shipping containers, Dekalb Market will include an incubator farm, a space for events and performances, and a collection of eateries and work-sell spaces. Urban Space aims to support the growth of Brooklyn’s best creative entrepreneurs by offering them an affordable retail alternative to a traditional storefront.

“By utilizing this unused piece of land we’re creating a central location in Brooklyn for commerce, music, art and design, as well as a functioning green space for people in the neighborhood to enjoy,” says Eldon Scott, President of Urban Space. “We are excited to utilize this competition to showcase the game-changing ideas that continue to emerge out of the borough of Brooklyn.”

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