Crains New York - June 11, 2012 - (Page 7)

NEIGHBORHOOD JOURNAL Old B’klyn Hts. draws new faces From downtown to Dumbo they come to Montague Street A BY SHANE DIXON KAVANAUGH n air of timelessness envelops much of fourblock-long Montague Street, but the commercial hub of Brooklyn Heights is stirring as it hasn’t in years. A number of trendy eateries, cafés and boutiques have popped up in recent months along the street lined with handsome Beaux Arts and Romanesque Revival buildings and Victorian row houses. Upscale bakery and café Le Pain Quotidien opened its first Brooklyn outpost on Montague and Henry streets in April, serving pricey lattes and pesto tartines. Across the street, boutique clothier Ruby and Jenna set up shop in a second-floor storefront just last month, a week after a Starbucks and Area Yoga & Spa Center moved in. They followed popular Manhattan cupcake purveyor Crumbs Bake Shop, which arrived 14 months ago a few doors down. “I’ve never seen this street so alive,” said Glenn Markman, who opened the Heights Cafe on the corner of Hicks Street 18 years ago with his brother Greg. This month, the siblings, along with partner Joseph Secondino, will inject a bit of new life when they open a brickoven pizzeria, Della Rocco’s of Brooklyn, around the corner from their well-established eatery. Mr. Markman and others attribute the surge in new establishments to growth not in the Heights, the borough’s oldest neighborhood— much of which became the city’s first historic district in 1965—but in surrounding areas.The new and still expanding Brooklyn Bridge Park along the waterfront below the Heights is now drawing thousands of people each week from across the borough, and even a few from Manhattan. a commercial real estate firm. Such a turnaround would have been unimaginable as little as four years ago, when the recession claimed several businesses on Montague.Vacancy rates topped out at 6% in 2008—on a street where vacancies have always been rare. In a single week that year, furniture store Jennifer Convertibles, the Spicy Pickles sandwich shop and a Washington Mutual all shuttered on the street. While other haunts have since followed suit—including 30-year stalwart La Traviata, an Italian restaurant, last November—the strip’s vacancy rate has eased back to 1.7%, according to data from the Montague Street Business Improvement District. And while retail rents now average between $100 and $115 per square foot, some spaces fetch as much as $250 per square foot. Higher rents have forced out a number of mom-and-pop shops,including a bookstore, pharmacies and florists. “There aren’t too many of us left,” said Thomas Cal- FULL UP: Vacancy rates have plummeted fa, whose family on the street as new spots have opened. started gourmet deli Lassen & Henning in 1939, monn’s in Brooklyn,an Irish pub bewhich Mr. Calfa now runs. “Who’s tween Clinton and Court streets gonna come and open on this street that’s set to close on June 17.“That’s now? Chains. No little guy can af- the last of our bars,” he said. ford it, unless he owns the building.” That’s not entirely true. A new Mr. Calfa noted that Montague’s Irish pub, Custom House, will open latest casualty will soon be Ea- on Montague later this month. Amenities in demand Meanwhile, the population of adjacent downtown Brooklyn has ballooned to 15,000 people from just 8,000 in 2009, courtesy of a series of new high-rise residential buildings. In addition, there are nearly 1,000 new hotel rooms. But with amenities still in short supply downtown and in nearby Dumbo, locals and tourists alike have been drawn to Montague Street. More shoppers and diners may soon be on their way. Last month developer David Bistricer snapped up the 93-year-old Hotel Bossert on Montague and Hicks streets from the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have used the ornate property as a residential facility. Once considered the Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn, the Bossert may return to its original identity as a 302-room luxury hotel. “The notion of a five-star hotel is about as good as it gets,” said Timothy King of CPEX Realty Services, June 11, 2012 | Crain’s New York Business | 7 http://merchant.bankofamerica.com/paymentum http://merchant.bankofamerica.com/paymentum

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - June 11, 2012

Crains New York - June 11, 2012
Table of Contents
Local hospitals suffer growing pains
Meet two of the busiest property buyers in town
Sin City: Pot, pop and ponies, by the numbers
New York, New York
Brooklyn Heights morphs into retail hot spot
The Insider
Real Estate Deals
Viewpoint
Greg David: Why city’s med centers must merge or die
Small Business
Plus: NY’s top hospitals list
Classifieds
For the Record
Tourists’ ticket to exclusive events
How to overcome the tech talent shortage
Executive Moves
Dewey partner down but not out
Hot and spicy at Singapura
The Weekahead

Crains New York - June 11, 2012