Terra Planning Showrooms For Design District Expatriates

[Via Terra Group]

The District 36 sounds like a space-age labor camp, but alas it’s just the name of the large furniture showroom a la old school Design District that Terra Group plans to build at Northeast 36th St. and Northeast First Ave. A company controlled by the Grove-based, father-son development duo has a purchase contract on the site, and the current structure (an old, possibly historic, church) is in an advanced stage of demolition.

With Craig Robins successfully luring the likes of Prada and Hermes to his $1 billion redevelopment of the Design District, the neighborhood’s stalwart high-end furniture showrooms are getting priced out of their longtime spots. And Terra’s here to scoop them up. Terra’s David Martin plans to build something large enough to contain as many as 10 showrooms and more than 100 parking spaces, sort of a Miami-style Merchandise Mart, or maybe a mini DCOTA, to “create linkage between”the Design District and Midtown. It could just like the 4141 Design Building was ten years ago, back when it was called the MID Building and had that footbridge. District 36 is set to break ground next fall, with a completion date sometime in 2015.