Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Bushwick Bucks Trend in Brooklyn Development Downtick, Report Says

By Serena Dai | October 5, 2015 1:59pm
 Rabksy Group is one of the major developers of new units in Bushwick.
Rabksy Group is one of the major developers of new units in Bushwick.
View Full Caption
ODA New York

You're not imagining things — Bushwick is having more of a construction boom than any other neighborhood in Brooklyn, according to a new report.

Real estate publication The Real Deal did an analysis of residential building permits filed in Brooklyn and found that there's been far less activity in 2015 than in 2014 in the borough as a whole, with just over 7,000 units planned this year through September 2015 versus 13,000 units planned in the same time period last year.

The report looked at only residential permits filed for buildings with more than 15 units.

But Bushwick bucked the trend, according to the analysis.

The neighborhood already has more than 1,300 new units planned this year through September — making it the most active neighborhood in Brooklyn for residential construction.

With those numbers, new units in Bushwick represent close to 20 percent of all new units in Brooklyn.

Bushwick had about the same number of units planned in the same time period last year, and with time still left this year, it's possible that the boom will keep going, The Real Deal said.

A big driver of the robust Bushwick number is the development on the former Rheingold Brewery site, where Rabsky Group has filed to build nearly 370 units at 10 Monteith St.

But many smaller projects are popping up in the neighborhood, as well.

Developer Moshe Braver has plans for a 5-story, 68-unit building at 405 Evergreen Ave. MKF Group is planning a nine-story, 32-unit building at 1127 Willoughby Ave., with a health center and rooftop space.

And a nine-story building with 49 units and a commercial first floor is planned for 1399 Myrtle Ave., a property that sold for $4.8 million last year, according to city records.

In total, developers have filed plans for 18 residential projects in Bushwick this year, with 1,328 new units.

By comparison, Williamsburg, the second most active neighborhood for residential construction this year, has 15 projects with just under 820 units planned.

Despite a downtick in the number of residential units planned in Brooklyn, The Real Deal noted that it's still the most active borough for home construction.

About 110 projects are planned in Brooklyn, versus 50 in Manhattan, 56 in Queens and 41 in The Bronx.

In Bushwick, average rent prices have dropped with the surge of apartments available for rent as landlords displace older tenants, but experts have said that locals shouldn't expect them to keep declining.

Many of the newer units tend to be in luxury buildings, and average rent will likely go up in the long run.