Williamsburg’s Bedford Avenue Among Priciest Retail Strips in the Country, Report Finds

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Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. Photo by Mary Hautman

It’s no secret that Williamsburg’s storefront rents are some of the priciest in the borough, but a new report now reveals they are also some of the priciest in the country.

The ever-changing commercial strip of Bedford Avenue is, along with Fulton Mall and Court Street in Downtown Brooklyn, among the 10 most expensive retail corridors in the nation, according to a new report by Brooklyn-based CPEX Real Estate, as reported by Crain’s.

With rents at $350 per square foot along Bedford, the corridor is even more expensive than Washington, D.C.’s Penn Quarter or Miami’s Lincoln Road.

Still, the report omits Manhattan from its list of the most expensive retail corridors, as rents across the river are crushingly higher than nearly everywhere else in the United States. Storefronts along 5th Avenue from 49th to 59th streets pay an average of $3,683 per square foot, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s spring market report in 2015 — more than $2,800 more than the highest rent listed on CPEX’s ranking.

Brooklyn Apple Store Facade, Windows Almost Done

Site of Bedford Avenue’s forthcoming Apple Store in September 2015.

In addition to Manhattan, Brooklyn’s California counterparts in San Francisco and Los Angeles — as well as one stretch in Chicago — also out-priced the ‘Burg and Downtown’s strips.

The nation’s most expensive retail corridors, as of June 2015, by rent per square foot:

    1. Los Angeles: Rodeo Drive (Beverly Hills) — $800
    2. San Francisco: Union Square — $650
    3. Chicago: North Michigan Avenue — $525
    4. San Francisco: Post Street — $495
    5. Brooklyn: Williamsburg (Bedford/N. 8th/Metropolitan) — $350
    6. Chicago: East Oak Street — $340
    7. Miami: Lincoln Road — $325
    8. Brooklyn: Downtown (Fulton Mall) — $250
    9. Washington D.C.: Penn Quarter — $220
    10. Brooklyn: Downtown (Court Street) — $200

The soaring rents of Brooklyn’s most desirable retail strips are in large part due to the ever-increasing presence of national brands capable of paying exponentially higher for their real estate than the mom-and-pop shops they displace.

Both Whole Foods and an Apple Store are planned to open along Bedford this year, joining J. Crew, Madewell and American Apparel in the area. Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks already proliferate in the neighborhood.

While many Brooklynites may simply see the new report as a corroboration of Williamsburg’s increasingly inaccessible rents and high-end retailers, it also brings insight into how the Bedford strip differs from others.

Rents were found to be flat and leveling off at other commercial streets in Brooklyn. Along Bed Stuy’s Fulton Street and Bushwick’s Knickerbocker Avenue the report found that rents had not increased since 2014.

But not on Bedford.

Williamsburg Brooklyn People Winter 2016

Williamsburg. Photo by Mary Hautman

[h/t Crain’s]

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