These days, it seems Brooklyn warehouses are simply turning into homes for wealthy New York transplants or venues for enormous hipster raves. But the fashion industry is looking to make at least one of these spaces more functional. New York City has just announced plans to invest $3.5 million in a location called the Manufacturing Innovation Hub for Apparel, Textiles & Wearable Tech.
The center will be located in Sunset Park’s Liberty View Industrial Plaza and aims to encourage growth for New York City designers, as well as bolster the fashion manufacturing industry in the area. The 110,000-square-foot location will be home to about 50 designers and approximately 20 to 30 businesses. The hope is that by bringing in a diverse group of fashion and tech companies, it will encourage them to work together and foster creativity and innovation which, ultimately, is good for the city’s economy. The Hub will contain a diverse grouping of spaces; WWD notes there will be classrooms, workspaces for designers, manufacturing units, storage space and more.
The Hub is expected to create about 300 jobs and will hopefully spark collaboration between designers and tech, further expanding the growing wearables market.
Construction on the site is supposed to start once Fashion Week is over in February and the facility should be open by 2016.
[via WWD]
