Retail rent on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg is three times higher than in the rest of Brooklyn

Williamsburg was once seen as a hipster Mecca, a place where you could buy artisanal knicknacks on every street corner, you could sit and drink next to Kyp Malone from TV On The Radio and a place bearded thrivers around the country would pray towards five times a day as they dreamed of making it out here. Some people still see it that way probably, but maybe a new report from the Real Estate Board of New York will disabuse them of that notion, because the average retail rent on Bedford Avenue’s Williamsburg stretch is the highest retail rent in Brooklyn. 

REBNY put out the first report studying retail corridors around Brooklyn, stretching from Greenpoint down to Bay Ridge, that looked at the average, median, and highest and lowest price per square foot in each of the 12 retail corridors. The stretch of Bedford Avenue from Grand Street to North 12th Street had the highest average price at $347/square foot. We recommend finding your favorite locally owned business on the strip and giving it a big hug, because who knows how long it’s gonna last before being outbid by a KFC/Taco Bell or an Apple Store Express. Nowhere else in Brooklyn was found to have prices above $300/square foot, although Fulton Mall came close with an average price of $287/square foot for retail spaces.

That being said, it appeared that there were still a few bargains to be had if you were planning on opening the charming little retail shop of your dreams, with both of Greenpoint’s corridors (Franklin Street from Meserole Avenue to Commercial Street and Manhattan Avenue from Driggs Street to Ash Street) came in at an average of $63/square foot and $65/square foot and Park Slope’s corridors (7th Avenue from Union Street to 9th Steeet and 5th Avenue from Union Street to 9th Street) had rents of $86/square foot and $81/square foot.

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Name (required)

Email (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail