SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS
New Yorkers flock to Crown Heights as real estate development booms
F OUR years ago, when architect and developer Alex Barrett scouted Crown Heights, he quickly concluded the area would be a good fit for a new condominium.
Home buyers want two things: relatively affordable prices (median sales in Crown Heights were $860,000 last year) and restaurants and shops just a short walk away. Enter lively Franklin Avenue, a north-south drag in Crown Heights’ western pocket with popular spots like Dutch Boy Burger and adjacent bar Franklin Park, Mexican eatery Chavela’s and upscale pizza place Barboncino. Barrett saw potential for growth towards the neighborhood’s vast eastern swath, including Bedford and Nostrand avenues.
“We saw there was a lot of vibrancy, and it looked like it was continuing,” says Barrett, founder of Barrett Design LLC. New businesses — like 2013-opened Senegalese-influenced Cafe Rue Dix at 1451 Bedford Ave. — were opening beyond Franklin. “That gave us a sense there’s a real demand for services . . . and that’s the best sign that we can see in a neighborhood.”
Access to public transit is a also a draw. The 2, 3, 4 and 5 subway lines run through the southern end of Crown Heights, while to the north, it’s easy to catch the A and C trains, as well as the Long Island Rail Road.
“That was huge, knowing I’d be close to several different trains,” says Tiffany Yannetta, a freelance writer and editor who moved into a one-bedroom rental in the area. She was also drawn, in part, by the retail newcomers. “A lot of the smaller new businesses have made an effort to blend in with the longstanding community.”
Now Barrett’s vision has become reality. His firm built the 23-unit 762 Park Place condo, two blocks east of Franklin, which began closing sales last month. Records show a 976-square-foot two-bedroom sold
for $962,247. “We were pleasantly surprised with the number of appointments we had when we hit the market two years ago,” says Lindsay Barton Barrett, of Compass, who leads sales there. Only one unit remains, a three-bedroom asking $1.12 million.
Data confirms that Crown Heights has reached new heights. The central Brooklyn neighborhood has seen its apartment inventory swell to 8,816 market-rate condo and rental units over the last five years from 1,388 in 2013, StreetEasy shows. The bulk of them are coming east of Franklin, where developers score cheaper deals on plots and properties in need of renovation. The area has traditionally been home to single- and multi-family townhouses, and rent-stabilized units — and now, following demand from locals priced out of neighboring areas, like Prospect Heights, builders are serving up even more market-rate apartments.
Between 2013 and 2017, the number of condos for sale in Crown Heights more than doubled from 236 to 476, according to StreetEasy, while the sum of listed rentals soared from 1,152 to 8,340. And now, 27 developments with 10 units or more are in the development pipeline through 2020, according to Halstead Property Development Marketing (HPDM), which will bring 2,758 new homes to the vicinity. The vast majority — 2,477 of them — are rentals. The HPDM research shows the bulk of new developments underway are new construction, including 16-unit 1201 President St., 29-unit 834 Nostrand Ave. and 16-unit 701 Prospect Place.
The east-of-Franklin commercial presence is also changing, particularly along Nostrand Avenue. There, older businesses like hair salons mix with newcomers, including cocktail bar Two Saints and the Sanctuary Juice Bar.
“This block is up-and-coming,” says Sarah Williams, who opened home-goods store Rituals and Ceremony — all the people moving to the area must need furniture and accessories, she figures — at 717B Nostrand Ave. in November. Her store is directly next to streetwear boutique Miles Culture, opened by Ty Holloway at 717 Nostrand last summer. The two feel embraced by longtime local merchants.
“It’s definitely a community feel,” says Holloway. “You can tell folks want [us] to do well, so I feel that love.”
Debbie Hardy, who opened Martine’s Dream — a shop that sells brightly colored clothing and home decor — at 681 Nostrand in 2013, lives in the area. She adds, “We are very much about holding each other up.”
A cluster of new condos are carved out of existing structures. In fact, the area’s development trend “started as a wave of conversions,” says Bren Salamon, of Douglas Elliman, who’s representing 1084 Dean St. — a new four-unit condo in an old townhouse that launched sales two weeks ago from $1.06 million for a 973-square-foot three-bedroom. “As the concept was proven, people started to buy plots of land.”
An early conversion was the condo at 1141 Dean St., which saw closings begin in 2010 (when a one-bedroom there sold for $314,847, records show, only to sell again last year for $684,000) for homes with stainless steel kitchen appliances and spa-like bathrooms. It helped set a precedent.
One notable example is 1375 Dean St. — Crown Heights’ single remaining wood-framed home, restored by Komaru Enterprise LLC — which had fallen into disrepair. Now fully rehabbed, the property is a four-unit condo (two are available, from $2.3 million for a five-bedroom). Another is 601 Crown St., a condo conversion of a 35-unit rental, which recently launched sales from $399,000 for a one-bedroom.
On the new-development side, in addition to 762 Park Place, the ground-up Hello Sterling — at 834 Sterling Place — has homes from $600,000 for a one-bedroom. And not all are condos: Next month, HPDM begins leasing studios through two-bedrooms at the 186-unit 409 Eastern Parkway, with a landscaped rooftop, a coworking space, a gym and a pet spa (from $2,275, just below Brooklyn's $2,500 median asking rent).
“The neighborhood has managed to keep a lot of its flavor,” adds Rob Gerhardt, a photographer who moved into a three-bedroom rental last May with his girlfriend, Amanda.
Like Gerhardt, most newcomers are acutely aware of how recent construction has pushed out some locals. By saving money on housing costs, as opposed to living in pricier Brooklyn neighborhoods, Yanetta is optimistic that new residents with extra dough in their coffers will spread it around. She adds, “Hopefully, they’re spending more at local businesses.”