The Yard

The Yard is a great spot to work. I spent a year there and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good spot to focus and get some work done. There are a lot of open airy offices. The people who work for the Yard are very friendly and helpful whenever you have a problem.
The rates are fair and comparable to other co-​working spaces. Free coffee and tea. Reliable mail service. They try out a few other perks, like ice cream to purchase and gourmet coffee machines. It’s definitely the best co-​working space I visited in the Greenpoint area.
I do have a few caveats though. The floors and ceilings are concrete, and the office walls don’t reach the ceiling. This has the effect of amplifying conversations going on in other offices. This was only an occasional problem until a guy who did most of his business on the phone moved in on my aisle. I got in the habit of keeping noise-​canceling headphones on hand to combat this.
Also, if you’re a freelancer and are hoping the co-​working space will offer some «co-​workers» to chat with at the water cooler, you’re mostly out of luck. People are there to work. The Yard people try to get some social events going, but they’re seldom and I always seemed to have other plans those nights.

Updating to give an additional star bc the owner apologized for the delay in returning the security deposit, and didn’t ask me to change my review.

Great spot. My company worked there for about 7 months and only left because we had both personally moved outside of Williamsburg and couldn’t deal with the commute. The internet was fast & the space is very well designed. The owners & Andy/​Jack are all flexible & easy to deal with. A space on the window had opened up and I expressed interest in switching, we were working from a window office within 15 minutes. Highly recommended for anyone in the market for a space in Willamsburg/​Greenpoint.

The Yard has proven itself to be a solid place to work in the year+ that my company has worked in it.
We even met other companies to do business with!

I’ve been working at The Yard for the better part of a year. Everyone here is super friendly. From the management to the other offices everyone is pretty amiable and friendly.
They work hard to build a community in this space and it really shows. The staff is very good at facilitating networking events/​parties as well as helping you meet other businesses that also work in the Yard.
Noise in the office hasn’t really been too much of an issue for us. They have dampeners to get rid of the ambient chatter and I mean it’s New York city. Even if your office space is quiet chances are there’s an ambulance blowing by that will disrupt you anyway or some butthole construction outfit jackhammering down the street. It happens everywhere, even in «Manhattan.» Throw on some headphones and get over it.
The neighborhood is awesome as well. I also live here so I know there are great spots nearby for coffee/​dinner/​drinks so if you want to get out and take meetings in the park or at a nearby food place, it’s perfect.

I worked at the Yard for 4 months before I had to leave because of the intolerable noise level. The walls do not extend to the ceilings (my bad for not noticing /​processing this when I toured), and people are free to play music (both recorded music and their own live «jams») as loud as they want — there is no policy and the owners refused to get involved when I asked them to address my concerns about noise. I actually moved offices within the Yard once due to the noise issues affecting my ability to do my work in the space, but Morris dishonestly moved me next to an empty conference room, which, within one week, was full of an incredibly loud start up company whose four braying employees played guitar and joked around all day. I left soon after. The woman and man whose offices were next to mine were out of there within a month of me as well.

Having spent a month working here for a large project I feel I should give a heads up to anyone considering this as a place of work. While the Yard has a great location there is little else going for it. Obviously the owners are far more concerned with making money than providing a decent service as the offices are cramped, poorly constructed and loud. The website is long out of date, including the prices that are listed. The conference rooms may as well be made from paper, so don’t expect any privacy nor quiet for important meetings or phone calls. On more than a few occasions I had to leave work early due to how hot my office became. There is also only one toilet for the men that gets quite messy and be prepared to wait. Probably most disappointing was the business practices of the owner Mauris. Even though I was only staying one month I was required to pay a month and a half deposit. Ok fine, but additionally in the overly long contract you will need to sign it stipulates a 45 day holding period on the security deposit from the date you leave. There is also a $ 100 setup fee which involves them handing you a set of keys. Andy (nice guy) who manages the day to day of the Yard graciously waived this fee given I was only staying for one month. I later found out that Mauris the owner, was not happy about this and made sure I knew I would be required to pay this if I wanted to stay longer than my intended month. Given the number of empty offices in the Yard things clearly aren’t going well and it is no surprise. While the market for office space for freelancers and small startups is a growing one, it is clearly one that the Yard does not understand. You should look elsewhere as there is much better on offer.

Our company has rented here for about 10 months and it was one of the few co-​working spaces we could find that balanced non-​manhattan prices with a good neighborhood of restaurants, subway access, etc. We have a nice view of the park from our window which is pretty hard to come by in NYC.
In general management here is very friendly and responsive and there are some very cool tech startups working here. Utilities and internet access are included in the rent and there are no long term contracts which makes this place very convenient if you are a volatile startup.
There are some nice social /​happy hours sponsored by management which help you meet other folks in the building and really help to develop the community.
Cons: Not enough restrooms (supposedly being addressed) and can sometimes get a bit noisy around the conference rooms.

Poorly run and dirty. We’re leaving here to another co-​working space, because asking clients to come to The Yard is just embarrassing. The man who’s at the front desk flat out refuses to do his job, so I’m not quite sure what the purpose of having him there is, except to scowl at people and toss you your mail every afternoon. The Yard is supposed to vacuum once a week, but requests to have this done are completely ignored. The bathrooms are filthy. Air conditioning shuts off, which has made summer unbearable. The conference rooms and offices are open concept, so meetings or conference calls are difficult. Everything at The Yard makes it difficult to run a business effectively.
We’re done here. I’ll miss the other companies that work out of The Yard, but can’t deal with the lazy attitudes anymore.

I called to make an apt. to see an office space. It took two days for anyone to answer; when making an apt. the owner seemed extremely irritated that I couldn’t come immediately there. Also, the price was more than advertised and he was annoyed when I asked about basic info like deposits, etc.
I went to my scheduled apt. and had no idea where to go. You walk into a «lounge» area FILLED with people all talking and working on couches (that advertised «$ 100 wifi space… well it’s well used)…which is cool if you like to work and be creative around loud people. I found someone who I assumed was the receptionist. He looked like he could have been a bouncer. He did NOT speak English and was extremely rude when I told him I had an apt. to see an office space. He would not call anyone to show me the office because the owner had left. He told me to come the next day… which I told him wasn’t possible because I was working. I told him I had already clearly made my decision just after looking around; the offices although very bright with light were cramped; and the walls didn’t’ even reach the ceiling. Completely impractical if you don’t’ have soundproof headphones. I’m not a prude who has to work in silence THIS PLACE IS THAT FREAKING LOUD!
The owner never showed up and I left. When leaving, I saw what I assumed to be him; some older man in a fancy suit (totally didn’t’ fit in with the rest of the hip people «working». I tried to stop him by saying «Hey I had an apt…» and he passed me by.
Somehow I had a very bad feeling about this place and would rather work in my kitchen than spend too much to work in a loud, rude, obnoxious environment.

I recently started working at The Yard and I couldn’t be happier!
Anyone I have ever encountered in the space have been friendly, helpful, and overall good people.
I’ve experienced different types of co-​working spaces, and this is by the far the most conducive to creativity and productivity. I love the open offices and conference rooms– it hardly feels like I’m working. (no cramped cubicles or light-​less offices).
Whenever I need a break, I simply walk outside to McCarren Park (they have wifi) and take in some fresh air.
5 stars by far! I love it here! :)

I have been working at The Yard for several months now and have nothing less than a really pleasant experince. Richard and Morris (the owners) have gone out of their way to to make me comfortable and offer any asstiance I have needed in getting set up in my new workspace.
The only trouble I ran into moving in was an issue with Internet connectivity and they had that resolved inside 15 minutes. This is very par for the course of my experince and expectations of The Yard.
I explored several office spaces once it became clear I was outgrowing my small workspace at home and found The Yard to be the best value of other spaces in the area. I also enjoy the friendly and creative vibe of the space.
If you are working for a small workspace or office in Brooklyn, I would would really recommend exploring The Yard.

Obviously the five-​star reviews are written by the owners.
I just took a tour of this place, hoping to find some good rental space for my design business, and it was totally creepy.
The owners were very rude and off-​putting. I tried asking simple questions, such as how many people rented spaces, and they made me feel extremely uncomfortable, interrogating me because they claim to be scared of the ‘competition’. (competition for what? cramped & awkward cubicles with strange old men lingering in the reception?)
The 2 – 3 person office spaces are small, cramped, and have no acoustic separation (the walls don’t even reach the ceiling). I could never imagine coming into that space everyday.
Additionally, they have no white boards in the conference rooms, and seem to have very little understanding of how creative people actually work. There were very few people in the space on a weekday afternoon, and it did not seem like a credible place to bring clients.
The owners that I met were obviously in it for the money — so the overall vibe was stale and uncomfortable.
Lastly, I spoke to a frustrated FedEx delivery guy on the way out who said that its always difficult to deliver packages to the Yard because there is no way to reach the front desk, and the doors downstairs are always locked.
I don’t see this lasting long. They obviously don’t get it.