{"id":208843,"date":"2026-04-24T21:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T21:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208843\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T21:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T21:47:11","slug":"brooklyn-is-all-the-rage-why-isnt-its-retail-booming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208843\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Is All The Rage. Why Isn’t Its Retail Booming?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Living in any of\u00a0Bedford-Stuyvesant<\/a>,\u00a0Bushwick<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Sunset Park<\/a>\u00a0comes with a distinct but equally trendy reputation for\u00a0Brooklyn<\/a>\u2019s young professionals \u2014 one that brands, in theory, would love to latch onto.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet, securing the right retail remains a challenge in many parts of the borough, brokers and developers said Thursday at Bisnow\u2019s Brooklyn State of the Market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cRetail seems to be, in some places, slow to catch on,\u201d Herrick partner Mitch Korbey<\/a> said onstage at the event, held at Global Holdings’ 25 Kent Ave.<\/a>\u00a0in Williamsburg. \u201cThere are some challenges even in Downtown Brooklyn<\/a>, around Fulton Mall, where we have 50,000, 60,000 people living \u2014 bigger than the population of Lower Manhattan<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already the largest of the five boroughs, Brooklyn\u2019s population surged by over 9% in the decade leading up to 2020. Despite registering a decline during the pandemic, it has continued to grow in recent years, with an estimated 2.7 million residents as of\u00a02025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coming out of the pandemic, it\u00a0had the city’s\u00a0fastest economic recovery<\/a>.\u00a0Over 40% of households make more than six figures as of 2023, according to the Furman Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTen, 12 years ago, people started to show up, new to the city, only looking at Brooklyn intentionally,\u201d Alloy Development<\/a> President AJ Pires<\/a> said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When most people think of Brooklyn\u2019s affluent shoppers, they think of Williamsburg<\/a>. The 2005 rezoning of Williamsburg and Greenpoint<\/a> brought new high-rises to the area. Today, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the adjoining neighborhoods\u00a0is just under $4,600<\/a>, according to a report by MNS<\/a> Real Estate.<\/p>\n

Parts of Williamsburg have become akin to SoHo<\/a> and Fifth Avenue<\/a>. Retail rents on North\u00a0Sixth Street peaked at $400 per SF last year, with prime storefronts demanding as much as $600 per SF, according to a report<\/a>\u00a0by the Real Estate Board of New York<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But those storefronts aren\u2019t necessarily the ones with the most activity, according to panelists at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe traditional Brooklyn narrative, from a retailer’s standpoint, is: We are in New York City and have decided we want to go to Brooklyn. Williamsburg is the first reaction, which is usually a brand response,\u201d Pires said. \u201cAnybody that then has two stores appreciates that they do twice the amount of volume in Downtown Brooklyn than they do in Williamsburg because of the transportation and number of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Bisnow\/Sasha Jones\n <\/p>\n

\n MNS’ Andrew Barrocas and daughter Zoe, Tri State Commercial Realty’s Shlomi Bagdadi, Gotham’s Bryan Kelly, Alloy Development’s AJ Pires, Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Lindsay Greene and Herrick’s Mitch Korbey\n <\/p>\n

Downtown Brooklyn was rezoned in 2004,\u00a0but it took some time for\u00a0developers to rush in. Last year, the neighborhood produced a record amount of housing with a total of\u00a04,421 new residential units<\/a>. Rents there surpass Williamsburg, with an average of $4,611 for a one-bedroom, according to MNS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, the retail sector is in a transitional phase. Banks and other essential services may be easy to find, but caf\u00e9s and small boutiques are less common. The same could be said for\u00a0Gowanus<\/a>, which was rezoned more recently in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we all need beds, and we all need grocery stores and so on,\u201d\u00a0Brooklyn Navy Yard<\/a>\u00a0President and CEO Lindsay Greene said. \u201cThey’re essential, but they don’t really make the neighborhood. They don’t provide character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mom-and-pops build character, but they tend to be less creditworthy. Even if they are likely to drive foot traffic,\u00a0that can deter landlords from working with them, especially since they require more of an investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s much easier to move volume and attract very successful smaller businesses, if they can move into a space that’s more or less turnkey,\u201d Greene said. \u201cThey can’t see a white box, where they can\u2019t envision a counter and a seating area, or whatever it is. They’re just not going to see it as a real actionable opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tri State Commercial Realty<\/a>\u00a0founder and President\u00a0Shlomi Bagdadi<\/a>\u00a0emphasized that developers can build off the momentum of existing stores, which define a neighborhood\u2019s character before the inpouring of new development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDevelopers are not coming to develop something in a vacuum,\u201d Bagdadi said. \u201cThere are normally businesses there. There are already local versions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s naturally \u201ca lag\u201d between when residents move in and the hottest new restaurant sees the area as profitable, Bagdadi said.<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Bisnow\/Sasha Jones\n <\/p>\n

\n Ariel Property Advisors’ Sean Kelly, Naftali Group’s David Hochfelder, Dansker Capital Group’s Andrew Dansker, Charney Cos.’ Brandon Tajfel and Windels Marx’s Andrew Stoecker\n <\/p>\n

MNS is currently leasing several buildings near the stretch of\u00a0Crown Heights<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Bed-Stuy<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0Atlantic Avenue<\/a>\u00a0that was rezoned last year. The 2,000 units, across a handful of buildings, have had no problem finding residents. The retail, however, remains empty, CEO\u00a0Andrew Barrocas<\/a>\u00a0said onstage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201cdefinitely a challenge,\u201d he said, but it\u2019s also expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cNinety-nine percent\u00a0of the time we’re leasing out buildings, the retail is empty,\u201d Barrocas said. \u201cWhat comes first? It’s always the tenants. The residential tenants come, and then the retail fills in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pricey\u00a0indie brands have begun to scout Brooklyn\u2019s neighborhoods in recent years. Anthropologie made its entry into the borough\u00a0in Cobble Hill<\/a>. Asheville, North Carolina, cult favorite East Fork Pottery ventured\u00a0farther down Atlantic Avenue<\/a>\u00a0for its first store outside of the South. British lifestyle brand Toast chose\u00a0Boerum Hill<\/a>\u00a0as the location for\u00a0its U.S. debut<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The presence of such brands can then build an ecosystem that entices their more-established luxury peers to open up shop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The evolution can be seen by following Fourth Avenue, which runs from Downtown Brooklyn to\u00a0Bay Ridge<\/a>, Bagdadi said. The area closest to its intersection with Atlantic and Flatbush avenues has already started to buzz with retail activity \u2014 approximately five years after its first residential towers sprang up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, it\u2019s Gowanus after that,\u201d Bagdadi said. \u201cIf you keep going, you’re going to hit Sunset Park. So, Sunset Park is going to take a little bit of time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Living in any of\u00a0Bedford-Stuyvesant,\u00a0Bushwick\u00a0or\u00a0Sunset Park\u00a0comes with a distinct but equally trendy reputation for\u00a0Brooklyn\u2019s young professionals \u2014 one that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[82808,38825,82807,4986,4987,15608,98,100,14261,99,9449,12750,3076,464,82811,50276,22060,82806,9,24,63,82810,7125,82809],"class_list":{"0":"post-208843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-aj-pires","9":"tag-alloy-development","10":"tag-andrew-barrocas","11":"tag-bed-stuy","12":"tag-bedford-stuyvesant","13":"tag-boerum-hill","14":"tag-brooklyn","15":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","16":"tag-brooklyn-navy-yard","17":"tag-brooklyn-news","18":"tag-bushwick","19":"tag-cobble-hill","20":"tag-downtown-brooklyn","21":"tag-gowanus","22":"tag-herrick","23":"tag-lindsay-greene","24":"tag-mitch-korbey","25":"tag-mns","26":"tag-new-york","27":"tag-new-york-city","28":"tag-nyc","29":"tag-shlomi-bagdadi","30":"tag-sunset-park","31":"tag-tri-state-commercial-realty"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}