As DNAinfo reported last week, one of the biggest media brands of the past century is moving some of its offices to Sunset Park.
On Twitter, discussions quickly focused on Brooklyn real estate and anxiety about where this is all going.
@DanaGoldstein the problem is that NYC's transportation system is very Manhattan-centric & a lot of workers live quite far from Sunset Park
— Casey N. Hedstrom (@caseyhedstrom) July 10, 2015Why do I get the feeling I'm going to get priced out of Brooklyn only to commute there for work someday http://t.co/18oG6S38md
— Tracy Miller (@MillerTracyL) July 9, 2015That last Tweet is by Tracy Miller, a former coworker of mine and an editor who's rented in South Slope for 13 years. I asked her to expand on her thoughts, and she messaged me back the following:
As someone who works in media, it's really interesting to see such a big employer setting up shop in this part of Brooklyn. It feels like the beginning of a trend.
At the same time, rents in the neighborhood have risen so much, the likelihood of being able to stay there — close to all these new jobs — is questionable for a lot of us.
I’ve also been renting in the area for over a decade, watching the neighborhood gentrify, and wondering where I might end up in response. Sunset Park seemed like a possibility, the same as Windsor Terrace might have seemed a decade ago. (Sunset Park’s 11213 zip code now has a median home value of just under $600K, according to Zillow. Park Slope/South Slope’s 11215 has a median home value of almost $950K: nope. Windsor Terrace/Kensington’s 11218 is just under $750K.)
But now, with Henry Luce’s magazines moving in? For a renter, it's like being single and seeing your favorite ex get married. Maybe we were never going to end up together, but it’s still a kind of shock to see them literally off the market.
