Zara has signed a lease at L3 Capital's retail development at 184-192 Bedford Avenue, taking over the lower level, ground floor and second floor of a new building that sits directly across from the Bedford Avenue L train station. The exact size of the lease was not disclosed, though the building itself spans roughly 24,000 square feet in the heart of Williamsburg's busiest shopping strip.
The deal was first reported by The Real Deal, which noted that neither brokers nor Zara representatives responded to requests for comment on the transaction. Newmark's Ariel Schuster and Tyler King represented the landlord, while Mitchell Dearman of MCD Retail represented Zara, according to the outlet's report. Asking rents in the deal were said to run about $450 per square foot on the ground level and roughly $150 per square foot on the second floor.
The building at 184-192 Bedford Avenue, located between North 6th and North 7th streets, was completed last year following a lengthy transformation of the site. L3 Capital demolished four vacant buildings there as part of the project, ultimately constructing a two-story commercial building alongside a separate structure with a lower level, ground floor and second floor, all developed with an eye toward tenants requiring large-format space.
A Long Road From Distressed Debt to Flagship Retail
L3 Capital, a private equity firm launched in 2009 and owned by Domenic Lanni, took control of the site back in 2020 as part of a $145 million portfolio takeover from distressed developer RedSky Capital, according to historical reporting from The Real Deal. The Chicago-based firm backed the acquisition with a $122.6 million loan from JPMorgan Chase, arranged in partnership with mezzanine lender BlackRock in early 2021. The company, which focuses on tough-to-enter urban retail submarkets, also operates in Fulton Market, Chicago's Gold Coast and Boston's Back Bay.
The finished building, designed by Building Studio Architects and constructed by McGowan Builders, rises 30 feet with a red brick façade, arched second-floor windows and a third-floor penthouse topped by a landscaped rooftop terrace, according to specifications reported by New York YIMBY. Intuit TurboTax has already opened a retail location on the ground floor of the same building, and the site's position facing the L train's primary entrance puts it at what the outlet describes as Williamsburg's heaviest pedestrian corridor.
Zara Joins a Luxury Rush on the North 6th-Bedford Strip
Zara is now the latest brand to open along Williamsburg's North 6th-Bedford corridor, a stretch that has recently welcomed Reformation, Cos and Chanel Beauty, with Hermès slated to open there in September. The corridor now competes with Soho and Fifth Avenue for national retail relevance, per The Real Deal's reporting. Williamsburg retail asking rents averaged $340 per square foot at the end of 2024 before climbing to an average of $400 per square foot in 2025, with prime storefront rents in the corridor now approaching $600 per square foot.
That surge tracks with borough-wide trends. According to the Real Estate Board of New York's H1 2025 Brooklyn Retail Report, average asking rents rose or held steady across 10 of 16 surveyed retail corridors as limited inventory pushed retailers to widen their searches, per REBNY. The adjacent North 6th Street corridor itself reached a record peak average asking rent of $275 per square foot during the first half of 2025, driven by expanding international fashion brands, the report found.
Large-Format Space Remains Scarce
Part of what made the Bedford Avenue site attractive is its size. Most available storefronts in the corridor are newly redeveloped spaces, but large-format opportunities remain rare across the borough: a late-2025 analysis by Asset CRG Advisors found that roughly 80% of available storefronts across 17 major Brooklyn corridors were 2,500 square feet or smaller. That scarcity helps explain why a multi-level, roughly 24,000-square-foot development like L3 Capital's stood out to a retailer needing room for a large-format store.
Zara's parent company, Inditex, has been consolidating smaller mid-tier stores worldwide while expanding flagship locations in key U.S. markets, including openings at Hudson Yards in New York and The Grove in Los Angeles in 2025, according to Fashion United. The Williamsburg lease fits that broader pattern of trading smaller footprints for fewer, bigger experiential stores.
Institutional Money Keeps Flowing In, but Debt Pressures Persist
Institutional capital has kept pouring into North Williamsburg alongside the retail boom, including Empire State Realty Trust's $31 million purchase of retail assets at 88-90 North 6th Street and 169 Wythe Avenue in July 2025. Real estate records also show that three property owners — Jerry Lebedowicz, L3 Capital and Simon Schischa — control most of the commercial real estate on 184 Bedford Avenue's tax block, with L3's ground-up build standing as the block's main new commercial project.
Even so, strong tenant demand has not insulated every landlord on the strip from financial strain. As Hoodline reported in a story on Bedford Avenue debt trouble, the owners of nearby 247 Bedford Avenue faced debt restructuring and lender scrutiny over a $104 million loan package earlier this year, even as retail demand along the corridor remained elevated. It's a reminder that Williamsburg's ascent into a national retail destination is playing out alongside real financing risk for some of the commercial landlords who own its buildings.
