A longtime children's clothing retailer in Sheepshead Bay is giving way to a full-scale health club, as Harbor Fitness has signed a 25-year lease for 20,000 square feet at 3460 Nostrand Avenue, marking the chain's eighth Brooklyn location. The space, split evenly between 10,000 square feet on the ground floor and 10,000 square feet on the lower level, previously housed S&D Kids, a department-store chain that had, as of 2016, operated for more than 30 years.
The lease was signed the same day the building itself changed hands, according to Commercial Observer. Commercial Observer reports that Gaama Partners purchased the building for $5.1 million on September 1, 2026. Gaama Partners now serves as landlord for the property, and the firm shares a mailing address with Augenbaum Realty, the brokerage that arranged Harbor Fitness's lease.
Broker Josh Augenbaum, who represented both Gaama Partners and Harbor Fitness in the deal, said the new club will fully serve the Sheepshead Bay community with state-of-the-art equipment and knowledgeable staff. The asking rent at 3460 Nostrand Avenue came in at $40 per square foot, according to Augenbaum Realty, a jump from the $35 per square foot rate the same brokerage secured for Harbor Fitness's Midwood location at 943 Kings Highway back in 2021.
A Recurring Partnership Behind the Deal
This isn't the first time Althkefati and Augenbaum have worked together on a Harbor Fitness deal. The pair previously partnered in November 2021 on the gym chain's 26,000-square-foot lease at 943 Kings Highway in Midwood, a location Augenbaum originally brought to Harbor Fitness through a cold call, per the same account from Traded. The Nostrand Avenue property had been listed for sale since early August 2025 before landing in Gaama Partners' hands this month.
Harbor Fitness has locations in converted Brooklyn buildings. The chain got its start in November 1991, when brothers Mike and Chris Ganim opened a 3,000-square-foot gym with racquetball courts inside a converted Art-Deco movie theater on 92nd Street in Bay Ridge, according to Club Solutions Magazine. That original site, built from the historic 1935 Harbor Theater, later grew into a 20,000-square-foot flagship. The chain has since applied the same adaptive-reuse playbook elsewhere in the borough, including a 1935 movie house in Marine Park with a 35-foot domed ceiling and a restored 1897 vaudeville theater on 72nd Street in Bay Ridge, per Harbor Fitness.
What Happens to the Outdoor Space
The Sheepshead Bay club's newest feature will be a 6,000-square-foot outdoor exercise yard, an idea that expands on an outdoor training concept the chain pioneered at its flagship Bay Ridge club, known as “The Yard.” That original outdoor space features astro-turf fields, Rogue squat racks, and climbing walls, according to Harbor Fitness.
The End of an Era for S&D Kids
For neighborhood families, the change marks the end of a retail fixture. S&D Kids operated as a department-store chain for more than 30 years and had four locations across Brooklyn and Staten Island, according to Ademero. The retailer vacated the Nostrand Avenue location. S&D Kids now retains just one open location, at 1480 Rockaway Parkway in Canarsie.
Part of a Bigger Retail Shift
The Sheepshead Bay deal brings a health club to the property.
The deal adds a fitness operator to New York City's retail landscape.
