Defense contractor moves to Brooklyn.

Downtown Brooklyn's office market has continued to draw a steady influx of major tenants, who migrated there in droves after 9/II but have continued to trickle in more recently because of the area's cultural amenities, workforce, and proximity to Manhattan.

Now one of the largest national defense contractors will be establishing an office in the area, indication some experts say of downtown Brooklyn's emergence as the dominant business district among the collection of metropolitan office markets just outside of Manhattan.

Scrambling to find space since it won a $500 million contract with New York City in September to build a broadband wireless network, Northrop Grumman took 41,000 s/f at 111 Livingston Street. The space was subleased from Visiting Nurse Regional Health Care System, an over 100-year-old healthcare provider that will be consolidating a number of city locations into 70,000 s/f it has just leased at 15 Metrotech Center, space that comprises the building's entire 10th and 11th floors. Cushman & Wakefield executive director, Glenn Markman, represented Visiting Nurse Regional Health Care System in its relocation and also in the disposition of its space. In addition to shedding its offices at 111 Livingston Street, the healthcare company will also be subleasing other offices at 180 Livingston Street, 45 Main Street in Dumbo, and 33 Irving Place in Manhattan.

"This deal offered them tremendous chance to make their operations so much more efficient," Markman said. "This was a real flight to quality for them and positions the firm to continue to progress."

Grumman was drawn to the lease in part because it expires in 2009, a relatively short timeframe by city leasing standards but which suits Grumman because the firm's contract likely will only take a few years to complete. Grumman will be designing a secure wireless broadband network for use by the city's police and fire departments that will improve communications and access to information in emergency situations.

Grumman's rents were not available but the asking rents for Visiting Nurse's new space at 15 Metrotech are $32 per s/f. Visiting Nurse's lease at 15 Metrotech extends for 15 years.

CB Richard Ellis represented Grumman in the sublease deal.

Markman, a broker who was born and raised in Brooklyn and has been a longtime champion of the borough, seems to work there just as easily and as frequently as he does in Manhattan. In recent months he represented nonprofit healthcare plan Health Plus in a 50,000 s/f lease signed at Brooklyn Renaissance Plaza. Overestimating its space needs because it expects to grow in the coming years, Health Plus subleased one of its two floors in the building to Motorola and real estate mortgage lender Countrywide Financial. Cushman & Wakefield broker, Danielle Zimbaro brought Motorola to Brooklyn and represented it in the sublease deal. Motorola hadn't considered moving to Brooklyn previously, but according to Zimbaro, fell instantly for the space.

Markman said, "Brooklyn is still in an embryonic stage. Young people want to live there and they're going to be the decision makers in firms who are going to keep coming to downtown Brooklyn. Brooklyn has mojo."