Highline Commerce expands at Industry City as Brooklyn retail tech hub grows

Highline Commerce has expanded to 60,000 square feet at Industry City in Brooklyn and now uses humanoid robots from tenant Ultra Robotics to handle up to 30% of its fulfillment process. The move underscores how logistics, robotics and direct-to-consumer brands are clustering in a campus built for production, shipping and scale.

Why it matters: - Industry City is becoming a Brooklyn base for retail tech, logistics and robotics companies that need room to build and ship in New York. - Highline Commerce’s expansion shows that 3PLs can grow inside the city instead of moving out when space gets tight. - The campus is helping consumer brands, fulfillment firms and robotics startups operate closer together and move faster.

What happened: - Highline Commerce expanded to 60,000 square feet at Industry City in its fourth year on the campus. - The third-party logistics company now fills up to 30% of clients’ orders with humanoid robots from Ultra Robotics, another Industry City tenant. - Highline Commerce serves more than 200 brands from the Brooklyn campus. - Ultra Robotics is backed by Y Combinator.

The details: - Highline Commerce grew from 27,000 square feet to 60,000 square feet at Industry City. - The company originally chose Industry City over the Brooklyn Army Terminal and the Navy Yard because of the space to scale. - Before moving to Industry City, Highline Commerce was in Chelsea and paid roughly twice as much for less space. - The robots can operate 24 hours a day without breaks. - The robots handle pick, tote, scan and conveyor work that moves orders from shelf to shipment. - Industry City says the campus has more than 700 companies and 8,500 daily workers. - Shared amenities and onsite events have helped companies collaborate, test and iterate faster. - Highline Commerce and Ultra Robotics tested the first robots live in real production, not in a decentralized lab. - Industry City’s tenant mix includes more than 50 eateries, bars and breweries. - Events such as Beanstalk have brought together more than 1,000 consumer brands. - Shopify President Harley Finkelstein has called Brooklyn “the Mecca for merchants, builders, entrepreneurs, and Shopify app partners.” - Industry City offers abundant loading docks, oversized freight elevators, 200-pound floor loads, three-phase power and gas. - The campus has enterprise-grade connectivity across more than 35 carriers and ISPs, plus dark fiber cabling. - Industry City spans 35 acres and attracts 3.3 million visitors a year. - The campus has access to 50 megawatts of power and advertises up to 22.5% energy cost savings.

Between the lines: - New York’s high real estate costs still push many growing companies out, but Industry City is trying to keep production and fulfillment inside the city. - The pairing of Highline Commerce and Ultra Robotics suggests the campus works as both a landlord and a matchmaking engine for adjacent businesses. - The concentration of brands, logistics providers and robotics firms creates a short feedback loop that can speed product testing and operational changes. - The broader trend is that more of retail’s physical infrastructure is moving back into urban neighborhoods, not away from them.

What's next: - Highline Commerce is positioned to keep scaling orders and automation inside Industry City as more brands grow. - Industry City is likely to keep attracting companies that need freight access, power, connectivity and flexible industrial space. - More retail tech partnerships could emerge as additional tenants colocate on the campus.

The bottom line: - Industry City is turning Brooklyn into a working hub for the physical side of e-commerce, from fabrication to fulfillment to robotics.