Shinola, the Detroit-based watch and accessories maker, has been opening new stores at a breakneck pace recently—bowing units in Washington, D.C.; Chicago; and Los Angeles in the past six months alone. 

And now the company has announced that it plans to take over nearly 5,000 square feet of prime retail space on Brooklyn’s Dumbo waterfront.

Courtesy Empire Stores

A rendering of Brooklyn’s forthcoming Empire Stores, where Shinola will open its second NYC shop

The new store, which will open in 2016, will be located inside the Empire Stores, a 150-year-old brick coffee warehouse that’s currently being converted into a high-tech office building featuring a suite of tony retailers that will inhabit its ground floor. 

The shop will be Shinola’s second in New York City; the brand has a store in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood. Shinola’s first Brooklyn digs will feature a café operated by the Smile, a local chain.

Empire Stores isn’t fully leased yet, but it’s been announced that it will be anchored by a 135,000-square-foot West Elm store. 

Shinola, which started as a gutsy, grass-roots brand reboot but has become a true-blue “it” brand popular with fashion types and watch enthusiasts alike, is smart to set up shop in the high-profile, luxury-minded project, which recently upped its per-square-foot rent from $150 to $200, because of the demand for space from retailers and restaurateurs.

In retail, it’s sometimes the neighbors you keep that most effectively broadcast the kind of brand you are—or ultimately want to be. 

Emili Vesilind

JCK Senior Editor