By Stephen Jacob Smith 5/14 4:40pm

Gentrification Watch

Brownsville is packed with projects, but will they be enough to stem the tide of gentrification once it hits the neighborhood?

Closing in on Brownsville: Brooklyn Gentrification Nears the Final Frontier

“So many of the civic successes heralded by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg,” Ginia Bellafonte wrote in The New York Times back in 2012, “might have happened in Lithuania for all the effect they have had (or could have) on the lives of people in Brownsville,” which Ms. Bellafonte then goes on to helpfully identify as a neighborhood in northeastern Brooklyn.

We’re not sure if gentrification counts as a “civic success,” and we aren’t aware of any pasty-faced, heritage flannel-wearing hipsters wandering around Pitkin Avenue, the neighborhood’s main drag, yet. But if trends in nearby neighborhoods are any indication, it won’t be long before Brownsville—a byword for blight, home to the largest concentration of public housing towers in the city and to this day a place that some mail carriers fear to tread—is selling something artisanal besides stamp bags. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/05/12 11:40am

The Mysteries of Brooklyn

It's Not a Brownstone, but... (Brownstoner

Mr. Brownstoner’s Crown Heights Creative Hub is But the First of Goldman Sach’s Investments in the Hood

Over the years, Jonathan Butler has covered countless Brooklyn real estate deals and developments—and by extension, the delights and absurdities of living in the borough—for his blog Brownstoner.

Now, he can finally write about his own. Mr. Butler and his partners have paid $11 million for a former Studebaker Service Station on Dean Street in Crown Heights. They plan to convert the 155,000 square-feet of space into a commercial mixed-use development that will house artists and assorted creative types as well as a food hall—a $30 million project, to which Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group will contribute $25.5 million. BFC Partners, the developer behind Toren, is also involved in the deal, which was first written about in The Journal and then, of course blogged about by Mr. Butler on Brownstoner.

A promising first step—bringing Selldorf Architects on board to design the space, which should be interesting given Selldorf’s success with high/low projects in the past: Manhattan galleries and penthouses, a renovation of the Plaza’s famed Oak Room and designing a Brooklyn recycling plant. Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 8/21/08 5:21pm

Inexorable Gentrification of Crown Heights Continues Apace

First came the overhaul of the old Jewish Hospital into quasi-luxury rentals. Then came Saje. Chavella’s. Bristen’s. Two clothing boutiques. The beer garden. Abigail. The gentrification of Crown Heights — in all of its prickly glory — continues apace with the impending arrival of Lily & Fig Fine Cakes and Confections on Franklin Avenue and Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 4/29/08 8:00pm

Hop To It: Crown Heights Gets Beer Garden

Beer nerds, rejoice! Crown Heights can now count itself among the select group of neighborhoods to have a true, brew beer garden.

As reported in the Gothamist, Franklin Park, at 618 St. John’s Place, officially opened its doors on Friday, tapping kegs of Coney Island Lager, Rare Vos Amber Ale, Hoegaarden, Green Flash Read More