Gowanus goes under the New York Times microscope this week with the bottom line of the story going something like this: Real estate developers have already staked their ground in the hopes that the area along the canal will be rezoned to more favorably accommodate residential while brownstone hunters who are willing to walk a few short blocks to nearby Smith Street and Park Slope can find deals at significant discounts to those two areas. The evidence?

Earlier this year, Ms. Walker’s firm sold a town house in need of some renovation on 11th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues for $825,000. On Seventh Street, Bonnie Coape-Arnold, an agent with Brooklyn Properties, sold a three-story, two-family town house with an owner’s duplex for $760,000.

With unsurprising optimism, Hal Lehrman, co-owner of Brooklyn Properties, sums the investment thesis up: “There’s a lot of potential in the whole Gowanus area. You’re between very expensive neighborhoods, so it’s a no-brainer.”
Some See Venice, Some See a Canal [NY Times]