NEW YORK CITY-Downtown Brooklyn is booming, at least if activity from Forest City Ratner is any indication. The company has signed a number of leases in the area recently, totaling over 570,000 square feet, it was revealed yesterday. The leases include long-term, diverse tenants at spots in Two Metro Tech and One Pierrepont Plaza. Financial services, government and tech are all taking major chunks of space.

“Despite still-challenging economic times nationwide, we are delighted to report that five diverse tenants have entered into new leases at Two MetroTech Center and that Morgan Stanley has renewed for a substantial block of space at One Pierrepont Plaza,” Forest City Ratner chairman and CEO Bruce Ratner said in a prepared statement. 

Morgan Stanley, which Ratner mentioned, renewed its lease at One Pierrepont Plaza for ten years. It will occupy 200,000 square feet in the building--retaining floors two through five in their entirety. At Two MetroTech, the General Services Administration has taken 120,000 square feet, the City of New York has taken 155,000 square feet--an expansion, and the Polytechnic Institute of New York University will expand into 90,000 square feet. Those leases are for 10, 20 and 15 years, respectively.

MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive VP of commercial and residential development at Forest City Ratner, tells GlobeSt.com that she is seeing a different kind of tenant occupy space in the Downtown Brooklyn area, as reflected in the recent deals. "Historically we've been home to financial services firms that have used the Brooklyn space as support space, corporate space or back office space," Gilmartin says. "Today we find ourselves with a fairly robust mix of users and it's everything from media, publishing, insurance and law--so we've seen an interesting diversity as it relates to the kinds of tenants that are flocking to our buildings."

Case in point: the expansions included in the recent lease signings, which Gilmartin sees as "the validation of what MetroTech was meant to be when it was conceived, which is a mixed use public-private partnership." She hopes to see more of Poly growing "because of the very aspirational plan that NYU and Poly have."

All those hungry office workers can rest assured that dining options will abound. Gilmartin says that retailers no longer see Flatbush as a stricly nine to five area and, in fact, a 5 Guys Burgers and Fries and a French-American bistro will take a combined 5,500 square feet of space at Two MetroTech as part of the recently-signed leases.

The Forest City Ratner side of the leasing was handled by Ali Esmaeilzadeh, VP of Commercial Development and Leasing at the company, along with a team from CB Richard Ellis comprised of MaryAnn Tighe, Howard Fiddle, Keith Caggiano, Evan Haskell and Roshan Shah. Brokers from Studley, Cushman & Wakefield, Newmark Knight and Schwimmer Realty represented the various tenants.