Uovo planning second, larger art storage facility in Brooklyn

The art logistics and storage company Uovo is planning to build a second facility in Brooklyn. The proposed 240,000 sq. ft building in Bushwick would complement a 150,000 sq. ft space Uovo opened nearby in 2020.

Uovo, whose art clients include museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and collectors like Juan Antonio Pérez Simón, is seeking approval from municipal officials to upzone a parking lot at 74 Bogart Street for the development. The building would include climate-controlled storage for art, wine and fashion, and private viewing galleries, multipurpose project spaces and other amenities. (For comparison, the proposed Uovo building would have around 9% more floor space than the Whitney Museum of American Art, which spans 220,000 sq. ft.)

In a statement to The Art Newspaper, a spokesperson for the company says it has received “overwhelming support” from the local community board for the project and “looks forward to moving through the subsequent stages of the land use review process”. It hopes to “eventually transform the current parking lot to a state-of-the-art facility that will employ Brooklyn residents and support cultural institutions throughout the city”.

Although the area has been historically occupied by warehouses, some community members are contesting the project, arguing that it will exacerbate an existing housing shortage in the neighbourhood and contribute to increasing rental costs, among other concerns. However, others note that the lot is not zoned for housing and would potentially create job opportunities for the community.

An open letter by a local resident calling on other residents to contact the community board and speak out against the project was circulated online this month. The letter argues that the development “serves no benefit to the community” and is “yet another example of the city giving away valuable land for free to private developers without delivering any meaningful public use in return”. It adds that the site “will be transformed into a temperature-controlled vault for the world’s wealthiest individuals to store their multimillion-dollar art collections, shielded from taxes and the public”, and that the facility “is not for any of us who actually live in this community”.

A representative for Uovo counters that the project is “fully aligned with [the community board’s] desire to ensure our project benefits the local community” and that its presence in the neighbourhood will come with “direct support for art programmes at a local school and continued support for local artists”.

In partnership with the Brooklyn Museum, the company launched the annual Uovo Prize in 2019, which provides a New York-based artist a $25,000 unrestricted grant, an exhibition at the museum and a mural on the façade of its Bushwick facility that aims to bring public art to the neighbourhood. The latest prize was awarded to the artist Melissa Joseph and unveiled this month.

The company adds that it will also support improvements and maintenance at the nearby Maria Hernandez Park through financial contributions, which will be announced as the project takes shape. The park requires several upgrades and most recently launched a $6.7m renovation project.

The proposed facility would span seven floors and include 16,000 sq. ft of retail space. It would be located next to an existing CubeSmart storage facility that was built by the same developer involved in the Uovo project, who reportedly bought the proposed site for $45.5m in 2019. The design firm S9 Architecture is overseeing the project.

Uovo, which was founded by Steven Guttman in 2013, operates 12 locations across the US including three in New York, among them a 280,000 sq. ft location in Long Island City that also serves as the firm’s headquarters.