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Shopping Centers Today -> December 2007
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ARTSY ’HOOD’S HOUSING OUTPACES RETAIL
In her 1943 classic novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith brings to life young Francie Nolan, an Irish-American girl growing up in poverty in pre-World War I Williamsburg. Through much of the 20th century, thousands of immigrants fled the slum tenements of downtown Manhattan to settle in that Brooklyn neighborhood just across the East River.
In the 1970s artists drawn to the area’s low rents and proximity to Manhattan started moving in. Today, thanks to a decade of gentrification, lucky is the immigrant or artist who can afford to live there. “Ten to 15 years ago, rents were an eighth of what they are today,” said David Tricarico, associate director of the Cushman & Wakefield downtown Manhattan office. “There’s a lot of development going up, and the big players are ready to stake their claim.”
Leading the way is Toll Bros. City Living, the urban development division of Horsham, Pa.-based luxury home developer Toll Bros. Its Northside Piers is a 5-acre, mixed-use waterfront development along the East River, with sweeping views of Manhattan. The development features a 29-story, glass residential tower with 180 condominiums, a 60,000-square-foot garden and a 400-foot-long pier. Units range from 518 square feet to 1,877 square feet; prices go from $360,000 to about $2 million. The first residents are scheduled to move in this month. Plans call for two additional residential towers to be built later, along with some retail space.
Adding to the charge is Jeffrey E. Levine, chairman of Douglaston, N.Y.-based Douglaston Development, with his plan to add a $1.2 billion dollar mixed-use development in Williamsburg, also along the East River. The 7-acre project, called the Edge, will contain 1,085 condominiums, 34 rental apartments, 60,000 square feet of retail space, 30,000 square feet of parks, 27,000 square feet of indoor recreational space and two parking garages. The New York Times reported in August that 600-square-foot studio condos will cost $600,000, and 1,075-square-foot two-bedroom condos will go for about $1.08 million. The project has yet to receive final approval, but the firm says it hopes to have it open by the summer of 2009.
Though residential development in Williamsburg is booming, retail development has not experienced the same rate of growth because of competition from Manhattan, sources say. “Ninety percent of what’s being built is residential, and only 10 percent is retail,” said Tricarico. “Some new players are coming into the market, but it will never be able to compete with Fifth Avenue and other popular shopping destinations in the city. Will it ever be able to come close some day? Hopefully.”
Some, though, believe they have reason to be more sanguine, because where people go, stores are sure to follow.
LOCAL INTEREST
Residents of Williamsburg are known for their activism. One grassroots group is fighting to ban cars from the neighborhood’s main artery, Bedford Avenue, to create a European-style pedestrian esplanade. The plan, launched in 2005, would bar automobiles between Metropolitan Avenue and McCarren Park. Side streets would remain open to accommodate deliveries. “What will replace the cars is a thriving pedestrian community, more outdoor seating for restaurants, islands of greenery, public sculpture, and anything else that makes the community more alive and beautiful,” says the group’s organizer, Emil Choski, a Williamsburg resident.
Not just for hipsters
Hip artists and students flock to the strip of Bedford Avenue near the L train’s first stop from Manhattan, but the rest of Williamsburg is home to a diverse ethnic community. “South Williamsburg” is home to the Yiddish-speaking Hasidim. “South Side” is an area occupied by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. The adjacent “North Side” is traditionally Polish and Italian. The industrial East Williamsburg is largely Italian, black and Hispanic.
 | Current Issue December 2008 |