Kickstarter Ditches Lower East Side for Greenpoint

For three years, the Lower East Side offered its commercial real estate as proving grounds for red-hot start-up Kickstarter. The global crowdfunding service headquartered itself at 155 Rivington Street, yet rarely publicized that fact. Those days are surely coming to a close (stop calling me Shirley). Indeed, like so many longtime residents and businesses of late, the troops are heading to Brooklyn.

The New York Post reported yesterday that Kickstarter purchased 58 Kent Street – the landmarked Eberhard Faber Pencil Co. factory building – for a reported $7.5 3.6 million. It was made possible thanks to $10 million in venture capital funding it received from top investors like Union Square Ventures and Thrive Capital.

Some fifty employees will have a slew of new amenities, including more legroom and a rooftop garden penthouse.

“We are hoping to stay at 58 Kent [St.] forever — to be our permanent headquarters,” Kickstarter CEO Perry Chen told a local Community Board in June.

The Kickstarter building was once the Eberhard Faber Pencil Co. factory, but all that remained was a two-story wall of mixed red bricks and boarded arched windows.

Community officials had nothing but praise for Kickstarter’s plans, which will save the wall and its colorful variety of brick. The company also is bringing back the windows and entryways.