Amazon.com Inc. in 2013 opened a photo studio in Williamsburg and later leased space in a Sunset Park warehouse for a distribution center. While Brooklyn is under consideration for offices, the e-commerce giant is also looking at Manhattan, potentially taking about 300,000 square feet at 5 Manhattan West, a skyscraper in the Hudson Yards development zone, said a person with knowledge of the company’s plans. A representative for Amazon declined to comment.

WeWork Deal

The last major lease agreement in Brooklyn involving a private company was with WeWork -- and even that deal is with an office-sharing firm that relies on luring workers to its space. WeWork agreed in July 2015 to take about a third of the space at Dock 72, the 675,000-square-foot project with Boston Properties Inc. and Rudin Management Co. at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, marking the startup’s first ground-up development.

“I won’t disagree that there hasn’t been that big headline tenant to date, north of 100,000 feet,” said Joseph Cirone, a broker with Cushman & Wakefield who represents two Brooklyn projects. Still, the market “is very healthy,” he said, citing almost half a million square feet of leases signed in the first quarter, including four for more than 50,000 square feet each.

The vision of insatiable Brooklyn office demand has come up against some intractable realities, such as the borough’s location somewhat removed from the center of the city’s corporate universe, said Holzman of Savills Studley. And Manhattan rents have been steady or falling and landlords are offering record tenant improvement allowances -- paying more to finish out raw space -- amid competition from new developments such as Hudson Yards on the far west side.

The softer market and “prestige element” of a Manhattan address means companies already there “can stay there if they want to, to attract talent, or it’s good for their brand image,” said Albina Reydman, an analyst at CoStar Group Inc. for the Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island markets. There’s also a limited supply of existing Brooklyn buildings with more than 100,000 square feet available, she said.

Kushner Deals

Since WeWork’s deal, the largest Brooklyn office lease by a private employer was a 79,500-square-foot agreement in February by 2U, an education-technology company, to move into 55 Prospect St.. The Dumbo Heights development is owned by a partnership that includes Kushner Cos., the family business that was run by Jared Kushner until January. The investors purchased the six former warehouse and printing buildings near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2013, with a plan to turn their 1.2 million square feet over to offices.

Kushner Cos. made another big bet on Brooklyn last year, teaming with CIM Group and LIVWRK LLC on a $340 million purchase of the former Jehovah’s Witnesses headquarters complex, famous for its electronic sign proclaiming “WATCHTOWER” to Brooklyn Bridge drivers. The partnership has hired Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. to find office tenants for it.

Marketing of the Watchtower space hasn’t yet begun, a spokesman for the Kushner partnership said. Jared Kushner stepped down as head of his family’s firm after taking on his White House role, and representatives have said he would divest his interest in some assets to comply with conflict-of-interest rules.