The Post displays some out-in-front reporting this morning with a story on the gentrification of Atlantic Avenue. Evidently, Atlantic has transformed from a strip defined mostly by parking lots a few decades ago to its current incarnation, notable for substantial residential and retail development. Most interesting are details about how home values have risen. “Back in 2000, a brownstone [in Boerum Hill] went for about $1.5 million,” says Nancy McKiernan of Nancy McKiernan Realty. The story says a brownstone off Atlantic today goes for roughly $2.5 million, and condos fetch in the $600- to $700-per-square-foot range. The article also has a roll call of all the avenue’s recent and planned development, including the Smith and Renaissance Realty’s in-progress luxury rental at 252 Atlantic. And, of course, Atlantic has seen a great deal of retail advances in the past few years, including its many newish boutique shops, the just-opened Urban Outfitters and the planned Trader Joe’s. The big elephant in the room, natch, is how plans to reopen the House of Detention are going to affect Atlantic’s progress. The article’s most hilarious quote is from a recent transplant who says, “The prison presence is barely noticeable at all!” That could change slightly if the city’s plans to reopen the facility with 1,469 inmates by 2012 moves forward.
Atlantic Current [NY Post]
Photo by urban_lisa.