There’s an odd article in the Journal today headlined “Brooklyn Is Set for a Building Boom” arguing that Brooklyn renters and buyers aren’t as interested in modern luxury housing as Manhattanites. The story says “14,000 new residential units” are “in the early planning stages” in Brooklyn—the article doesn’t specify developments, but we’re guessing that the vast majority of those are supposed to be delivered via Atlantic Yards and Domino, so the “boom” has been imminent for quite some time—and that because Brooklyn has a higher proportion of “tech and creative workers” than Manhattan, developers should focus on building the sort of projects that appeal to people in those professions. According to Nancy Packes, who consults developers, techies and creatives “are likely to gravitate toward simple, tasteful new construction at lower price points and away from modern towers loaded with amenities.” And: “Brokers and developers agree that they are seeing demand in the borough for brownstones or new construction with classic touches, and less interest in shiny modern construction.” It’s not clear how this plays out in practice with new construction though—how do the big new developments planned from, say, AvalonBay in Downtown, or the tower Douglaston is going to build on the Williamsburg waterfront (rendered above), eschew shiny and modern?
“Brooklyn Is Set for a Building Boom” [WSJ]