Downtown Brooklyn’s Fulton Street replaces Bedford Avenue as Brooklyn’s priciest retail district

A stretch of Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn has displaced Williamsburg’s Bedford Avenue as the priciest commercial real estate strip in Brooklyn, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual Brooklyn Retail Report (h/t DNAInfo).

The average asking rent for ground-floor retail along the strip, which goes from Boerum Place to Flatbush Avenue, saw a year-over-year increase of eight percent, bringing the current total to $326 per square foot, up from $301 this time last year.

The bump is due to the area’s residential real estate boom, including the development of City Point and its significant commercial attractions, with more to come. So far, there’s a Target, a Century 21, and an Alamo Draft House Cinema, and a Trader Joe’s—the arguable pièce de résistance of the development—is scheduled to join them later this year.

Prices for ground-floor commercial rentals on Bedford Avenue, on the other hand, have dropped precipitously thanks to shifting availability. The stretch between Grand Street and North 12th Street, where the report notes there is less foot traffic and retail density, has seen an increase in open retail space. The strip between North 3rd and North 9th Streets, on the other hand—prime Bedford—has seen an overall decrease in available retail spaces.

The overall result: The average asking rent has fallen 18 percent since this time last year to $296 per square foot. Of the 15 commercial districts REBNY looked at for the report, prices along Bedford Avenue had fallen the most. The report didn’t indicate how the impending L train shutdown may have played into the strip’s declining retail prices.

But as Bedford prices are on the decline—at least, for now—prices along prime corridors of Greenpoint and Park Slope are on the rise.

The strip of Franklin Street between Meserole Avenue and Commercial Street in Greenpoint saw the greatest increase of the year, with ground-floor asking rents skyrocketing 41 percent, from $63 per square foot to $89 per square foot. And Park Slope’s Seventh Avenue between Union and Ninth Streets isn’t far behind. That area saw a similar jump—35 percent—bringing the average price per square foot up to $129, a result of very low inventory along the corridor.

• Real Estate Board of New York’s annual Brooklyn Retail Report [REBNY]
• Fulton Street is the Most Expensive Retail Stretch in Brooklyn, Report Says [DNA Info]
• Surveying Williamsburg’s Bedford Avenue, now approaching peak post-gentrification [Curbed NY]