Brooklyn is giddy over Hillary Clinton’s arrival (Crain’s New York Business)

Brooklyn is giddy over Hillary Clinton’s arrival (Crain’s New York Business)

"Brooklyn is the road to the White House," said Carlo Scissura, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

Politico, Bloomberg and MSNBC are all reporting Friday that Ms. Clinton's nascent campaign has signed a lease for two full floors at 1 Pierrepont Plaza in Brooklyn Heights, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city. She attended an event in Brooklyn earlier this week with Chirlane McCray, Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, to promote early childhood education.

Brooklyn was long rumored to be on the campaign's short-list for a headquarters. But even though the borough lost its bid to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention, it still will play a central role in the upcoming presidential election.

Mr. Scissura, who can see 1 Pierrepont Plaza from his office window, said the arrival of Ms. Clinton's campaign will have an immediate positive effect on Brooklyn Heights restaurants, stationery stores and hotels, as well as the borough as a whole.

"They will be right at the heart of more than a dozen subway and bus lines, they'll have Brooklyn Bridge Park, they can walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, they can be out in southern or eastern Brooklyn in 20 minutes by subway," he said. "I think it's not about Brooklyn Heights or downtown, it's about the borough."

He added that campaign workers and volunteers will work in Brooklyn Heights, but live in Bushwick and Sunset Park.

Other Brooklyn business leaders are giddy at the prospect of Ms. Clinton's campaign setting up in their midst.

"We are a true reflection of American values, resiliency and entrepreneurial spirit, and we couldn't be happier that Secretary Clinton chose to locate her campaign in our community, a physical manifestation of the best of our nation," said Tucker Reed, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, in a statement.

In promotional materials, 1 Pierrepont Plaza, which is owned by Forest City Ratner and occupied by Morgan Stanley and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District (an office formerly held by U.S. attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch), is described as "Modern Offices. Brooklyn Cool."

Ms. Clinton is likely trying to capitalize on that cool-factor, but she will also have to contend with the borough's rising rents and cost of living. The median income in Brooklyn Heights is $115,042, while the average household net worth is $969,389, according to realtor.com. One-bedroom apartments in the neighborhood rent for a little less than $3,120 a month, while two-bedrooms go for $4,200, according to a February rent report by MNS.

Downtown Brooklyn is also experiencing a severe shortage of office space, which one commercial real estate broker termed a "crisis." Mr. Scissura said he hopes the imminent arrival of Ms. Clinton's campaign will send the signal to developers that Brooklyn is prime space for tenants.

"We are the future," he said. "And that was just cemented by her signing the lease."

Clinton kin promoting Chinatown tower plan inks deal for Brooklyn Heights offices (Philadelphia Inquirer)

The proposed 23-story Eastern Tower Community Center, planned for 10th and Vine Streets, is to have 143 residential units, as well as ground-floor retail shops, a second-floor community center, and three floors of office space, developers say.

A firm created in 2013 to find wealthy Chinese investors for the project, Global City Regional Center, says Rodham is responsible for international marketing and promotion, and "all governmental relations matters" for the firm.

The firm's website promotes Rodham's family connections, noting that he "has worked with former President Bill Clinton on all his campaigns, from the House of Representatives to the presidential campaigns. Subsequently, Mr. Rodham worked for the Democratic National Committee coordinating constituency outreach. Mr. Rodham also worked for his sister, Hillary Rodham Clinton, during her Senate and presidential campaigns."

Rodham, who has been associated with the firm for at least a year, brings added political heft to a project that also has two prominent local Democrats as advisers.

Marjorie Margolis, a former congresswoman from Montgomery County and Chelsea Clinton's mother-in-law, and Joseph M. Hoeffel 3d, a former congressman and Montgomery County commissioner, are on the three-member board of advisers to Global City.

Rodham's role was first reported by Politico.

Hoeffel said Rodham is a "knowledgeable and active" consultant to the firm, with extensive experience in so-called EB-5 projects, which use funding from foreign investors.

Such projects allow the investors to get U.S. residency for themselves and their families by contributing $500,000 to a job-creating project in the United States, under the federal Immigrant Investor Program, created in 1990. Successful investors are eligible for EB-5 immigration visas and a path to eventual U.S. citizenship.

EB-5 projects have grown in popularity around the country as a source of cheap money for both private real estate developments and public-works projects.

Among local projects and companies that have used EB-5 financing are the construction of the Pennsylvania Turnpike's connection to I-95, SEPTA's new smart-card fare-payment system, the Convention Center, Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, Comcast Corp., the Butcher & Singer steak house, and Temple University Health System.

Despite such successes, the EB-5 program has been controversial for its role in providing green cards for cash, and has drawn criticism for lax oversight and some fraudulent projects that produce neither American jobs nor permanent green cards for foreign investors.

Hoeffel said Rodham's experience with EB-5 projects make him an asset for Global City and its effort to develop the Chinatown project. "Tony is not there for show," Hoeffel said Friday. "He is very knowledgeable and active."

Rodham was involved in an EB-5 project in Mississippi that was investigated for claims that it used political connections to get approval from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The Chinatown project, on what is now a parking lot, is being developed by Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp. and local developer Ahsan M. Nasratullah.

Nasratullah, who created Global City Regional Center in 2013, is the founder of JNA Capital Inc. and the chief executive of an affiliated real estate development firm, Teres Holdings, which built, among others, Distrito Restaurant by the University of Pennsylvania campus and the Shops on Liacouras Walk, a mixed-use development by Temple University.

Neither Nasratullah nor Rodham could be reached for comment Friday.

Hoeffel said developers are hopeful that the Chinatown project, which has been on the drawing board for a decade, will begin construction this year.