American Giant Signed a 10-Year Lease for Its First Brooklyn Store After Closing SoHo. What the Williamsburg Bet Signals
The made-in-America apparel brand leased 3,400 square feet at 83-85 Metropolitan Avenue in North Williamsburg for a 10-year term, its first Brooklyn store, after closing the SoHo shop it opened in 2024. The deal says as much about Brooklyn retail as it does about the brand.
NEW YORK — American Giant is coming back to New York retail, and this time the address is in Brooklyn, not SoHo. Commercial Observer reported on Nov. 3 that the San Francisco-based apparel brand, which says it makes its sportswear and casual clothing exclusively in the United States, signed a 10-year lease for 3,400 square feet at 83-85 Metropolitan Avenue in North Williamsburg. It will be the company’s first Brooklyn store.
The location sits between Kent and Wythe avenues, along the waterfront corridor near Domino Park and within reach of North Sixth Street, where Commercial Observer noted that brands including Rolex and Hermès have opened borough flagships. The company’s own retail locations page now lists “83 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11249” as coming soon, alongside its store at 2076 Chestnut Street in San Francisco and an outlet at 1025 Outlet Center Drive in Smithfield, N.C.
What the page no longer lists is a Manhattan shop. Commercial Observer reported that American Giant’s SoHo store, which opened at 339 West Broadway in 2024, has since ceased operations, and that the company and the landlord did not respond to requests for comment on the Brooklyn deal. No opening date has been announced.
What Was Signed, and What Wasn’t
A spokesperson for Cornelia Street Partners, which represented American Giant, told Commercial Observer that the store itself will occupy 1,700 square feet of the leased space. The brand has not disclosed plans for the remaining 1,700 square feet. The asking rent was not disclosed. For context only — not as the rent on this deal — Commercial Observer cited a nearby Zara lease at 184-192 Bedford Avenue that The Real Deal reported at $450 per square foot for the ground floor.
Lenny Kohlmayer and Evan Kleinberg of Cornelia Street Partners negotiated the lease for the tenant. Steven Ancona of Flatiron Real Estate Advisors represented the landlord, an entity Commercial Observer identified as China Building.
A 10-year term on a waterfront Williamsburg block is a serious commitment, and a different bet than a short SoHo pop-up. American Giant is choosing duration over optionality.
Why Brooklyn, After SoHo
We do not have the company’s explanation for closing West Broadway or choosing Metropolitan Avenue; Commercial Observer said American Giant did not comment. The public facts still sketch a strategy other retailers will recognize. The brand now operates a small store network — one full-price shop in San Francisco, one outlet in North Carolina, and a coming Brooklyn location — rather than a coast-to-coast fleet. When a company that size adds a store, the address has to do more than look good in a lookbook.
North Williamsburg’s waterfront has become a place where national and luxury names test the borough. A shop near Domino Park puts American Giant in front of weekend foot traffic that is not the same as the SoHo mix of tourists and editors. It also puts a made-in-America basics brand next to a corridor that can support much higher price points. That can help if the store becomes a destination for people who already came to the neighborhood. It can hurt if the rent assumptions were built for a luxury neighbor the brand is not.
Leasing 3,400 square feet and opening a 1,700-square-foot shop is another tell. The unused half could become storage, a studio, a second phase, or space the landlord insisted on leasing together. Until American Giant says which, founders should price the whole lease, not just the part they plan to fixture on day one.
What New York Retailers Should Take From It
Independent shops cannot copy American Giant’s manufacturing story or its ability to sign a 10-year waterfront deal. They can copy the questions the deal raises.
A closed Manhattan store is not the same thing as giving up on New York. It can mean the first address was wrong: too expensive, too dependent on tourists, or too far from the customers who actually wear the product. Brooklyn is not automatically cheaper, but it can be a better match.
Look at the corridor, not just the vacancy. Commercial Observer’s reference to Rolex and Hermès on North Sixth Street is a reminder that you may be bidding against, or sitting beside, tenants with very different math. A block that works for a luxury flagship does not automatically work for a sweatshirt brand, or for a neighborhood boutique.
Treat comps carefully. The Zara figure on Bedford Avenue is useful background on what landlords in the area think they can get. It is not American Giant’s rent, and it is not your rent. Ask for recent signed deals on your specific stretch, on your size bay, with your use.
And decide how long you can really stay. Ten years of certainty helps a landlord and can help a brand that needs time to teach customers a new address. It is a problem if your product, your capital or your neighborhood changes in year three.
American Giant has not said when the doors will open, or what it will do with the extra 1,700 square feet. Until then, the news is the location itself: a national brand that already tried Manhattan is placing its next, longer bet on the Williamsburg waterfront.
Entrepreneurs Of New York is an independent publication and is not affiliated with American Giant.