Manufacturing, New Business, Population, Incomes All Rise as Gowanus Gentrifies

New businesses, particularly in small-scale manufacturing and craft goods, have shot up in Gowanus since 2000, according to a report cited in the New York Daily News. Wholesalers and crafts makers producing specialty items such as custom wedding dresses, coffee and vinyl furniture covers explain much of the neighborhood’s 44 percent increase in new business over the last 13 years. The report, conducted by the Bloomberg administration, also shows rapid gentrification of the area: Property values have soared 83 percent since 2004, as the median income has risen from $46,116 in 1999 to $99,543. What’s more, the population is up by 2,600 in the last three years, and 25 percent of residents are aged 25 to 34.

Andrew Paul Smith, a broker with Ideal Properties Group, told the Daily News, “I have a lot of clients in their late 20s who want to move here because places like Park Slope have more families and strollers around. Here they can continue to be cool.”

Gentrification and Manufacturing Side by Side in Gowanus [NY Daily News]
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