Skip to main content

Featured Post

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

Brooklyn's not over (says Butler), but developer lag time gets shorter. Retail boom includes Flatbush near Barclays.

In an Observer interview, KINGDOM OF NEW YORK: Jonathan Butler on the Boom That Ate Brooklyn:
Jonathan Butler’s Brooklyn empire includes Brownstoner, the real estate blog he founded in 2004, along with Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg, both of which he co-founded with Eric Demby. Most recently, Mr. Butler led a group of investors, including Goldman Sachs, in renovating a Studebaker factory in Crown Heights. His recently opened 1000 Dean, a 150,000-square-foot commercial space, is emerging as a Dumbo alternative for creatives.
Bloggers love to declare Brooklyn over. Is there anything to it? Brooklyn is clearly getting less affordable, but the more mobile creative class is going to keep finding places to go. It’s hard to say Bushwick or Sunset Park is over. It’s just that the lag time for when developers show up is shorter.
The retail boom, and promise

Maybe Brooklyn's not over, because, according to CPEX Real Estate Services, as noted in the Crain's article 9 B'klyn retail strips see rents more than double, retail strips beyond the borough's northern half have not yet boomed:
In fact, the highest asking rents out of the 88 retail corridors tracked in the report topped out at more than $200 per square foot. That level was hit along the Fulton Street Mall in the heart of downtown Brooklyn, a strip that has seen extensive renovations and repositioning of its storefronts, as well as the construction of a number of high-rise, luxury apartment buildings. Not far behind in terms of rents per square foot were Williamsburg's main drag Bedford Avenue, downtown Brooklyn's Court Street and Flatbush Avenue near the Barclays Center at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue.
The increase in rents on Flatbush has meant a lot of turnover as retailers try to figure out how to market both to arena-goers and locals.

"Sunset Park is clearly, in my opinion, the next big thing," declared CPEX's Timothy King. "This won't happen overnight, but in five years you won't recognize that area."

Though Industry City is getting a revamp, Sunset Park is huge, actually.

As noted in the report, Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights is booming, so Nostrand Avenue (between Dean and President Streets) to the east, is predicted to be next. Ditto for Fifth Avenue in "Greenwood Heights," 17th Street to 23rd Street, and Berry Street between N. 3rd and N. 8th, which is parallel to Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.

Comments