Wild About Brooklyn

Developers See Investment Value In The Outer Borough

By Amy S. Choi

Once development got started in Brooklyn, nobody could stop it.

No one wanted to.

"Development is wild in Brooklyn right now," said Joan Bartolomeo, president of the Brooklyn Economic Development Corp. "You see dramatic change happening even in the small neighborhoods, whether there are new storefronts, commercial or residential development."

The increase in development activity is partly due to overflow from land-constrained Manhattan, both on the commercial and residential side. But the vast majority of the interest comes from developers who are slowly but surely recognizing the investment value in Brooklyn.

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On the retail side, for example, superstores such as Wal-Mart and Ikea are trying desperately to find land to develop in the borough.

"There are 2.5 million people here, and I think developers realized that people were taking their money someplace else," Bartolomeo said. "I think they're now trying to keep the money local."

Residential developers are equally eager to build, both in downtown Brooklyn and in other neighborhoods, especially Williamsburg and Park Slope. "You can't walk down the block without seeing a crane or sidewalk shed, even in Park Slope, which would have been unheard of 10 years ago because of the cost of the land acquisition," Bartolomeo added. "But now, the return on investment is so huge that people are willing to spend money to be there."

Class A office space is booming as well, especially in downtown Brooklyn, where the MetroTech project reinvigorated the area with a dozen new buildings in the past decade. There is currently 11 million sq. ft. of total office space, of which 6 million is class A back office space.

The Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan, adopted as a major city initiative by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in April, now hopes to add an additional 5 million sq. ft. of office space, 1 million sq. ft. of retail and 1 million of residential, which totals about 1,000 new housing units.

Downtown, some residential development is coming in the form of conversions. For example, Two Trees Management acquired the former Board of Education headquarters for $45 million and is renovating it into 300 condos. Some of the units will be set aside for affordable housing.

"The goal here is to solidify downtown Brooklyn as the region's third largest business district and to help it become a thriving community in and of itself," said Michael Burke, executive director of the Downtown Brooklyn Council, an affiliate of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. "We want to create a 24-7 atmosphere as opposed to simply an office park."

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