Bushwick Booming, Or So The Brokers Say
Have you heard the news? Bushwick is hot. “It’s what Williamsburg was in the ’90s [and] what SoHo was in the ’80s,” says Len Moroz, co-owner of Potion Café in the McKibben Lofts building. With the first several condo projects in the area having sold at well above expected prices last year, brokers (hardly an…
Have you heard the news? Bushwick is hot. “It’s what Williamsburg was in the ’90s [and] what SoHo was in the ’80s,” says Len Moroz, co-owner of Potion Café in the McKibben Lofts building. With the first several condo projects in the area having sold at well above expected prices last year, brokers (hardly an unbiased crowd) are predicting that more and more landlords will be converting their rental buildings to condos in the near future. So who’s going to buy all these new condos? “Artsy Yuppies,” says Douglas Elliman’s Lisa Maysonet, who’s had her hand in the sale of several new condos in the nabe. “They’re artsy in look and feel,” she says of the gentrifiers, “but not in occupation.” That is, they have a real paycheck but are still partial to the bed-head look. Do you think there are enough of these folks to fuel a continued condo boom in the area or do you not believe the hype?
Approaching the Summit [NY Post]
Photo by martha martha martha
I think that since Bushwick has one of the highest concentrations of rent stabilized housing in the city, that will prevent it from being a victim of the steam-rolling gentrification that completely changed williamsburg in the space of 5 years. once that ball got rolling, there was little to stop it as most established housing was 2 or 3 apartments over street level retail.
I’ve lived in Bushwick since 2000 within 2 blocks of Knickerbocker. I was held up at gunpoint in 2002. I was robbed at knifepoint in williamsburg on Bedford by Grand in 1998. People get killed in Manhattan. I had a bad experience yet I do not feel in danger in Bushwick. I am, as a result of my previous adventures, streetsmart obviously.
I also feel a big change in the vibe of Bushwick just in the last two years: more fashionistas on the street, etc. It’s a neighborhood in transition and I think that new money coming into the neighborhood is definitely a good thing and the rent-stabilized stock will balance that for some time. What I moved to NYC in 1995 for was diversity, not to lived in a gated community for wealthy careerists.
I just got a rent stabilized 2 bedroom railroad on Maria Hernandez park for quite cheap. The apartment definitely has some issues, but with my view of the park, a locked in lease, and the fact that I’m back in school, I am definitely sinking my claws in.
I got chased out of Williamsburg I’m not leaving this neighborhood. I love Bushwick!
from someone who actually lives in the true part of Bushwick.. off of the Dekalb stop on Knickerbocker ave.. i can without a doubt say that the area is no worse than any other part of brooklyn with the exceptions of the richer areas in park slope and brooklyn heights/cobble hill etc..and i would know, ive ived in park slope
bushwick stretches from montrose avenue to myrtle/wyckoff subway stops.. anything closer is williamsburg.. imo
Jason, you’re going to have to produce some proof for me to believe that. if you check the crime stats, bushwick is really no worse than several other precincts in brooklyn. unless you’re using 1977 stats or something. however, you may be right about the schools, even today.
and never say ‘ungentrifiable.’ those RE agents just love a challenge!
Anyone singing the praises of Bushwick while revealing they live off the morgan stop or on the other side of cypress (um…that part is called queens) might not be entirely aware that bushwick -wykoff to broadway – flushing to well past myrtle) has blocks with the highest rates of murder, prostitution, domestic violence, poverty, roberies and some of the worst public schools in the city. It’s blighted and ungentrifiable. You could, living on the right block, have access to all you need and still be four or five blocks to the L or J. But it seems from these posts most of the pro bushwick contingent does not know exactly where this neighborhood is or where they live.
Denny,
I have friends who bought beautiful townhouses in Bed-Stuy on great blocks that are miles away from any projects. Most of the large projects you speak of, e.g., Marcy, Sumner and Thompkins, are contiguous and exist on the Bushwick border. Granted there are some brownstones in northern Bed-Stuy too but that section of the nabe is very disjointed, run down and is pretty much like the rest of Bushwick. And northern Bed-Stuy brownstones go for about $400k-$500k, not $1M. The million dollar brownstones in Bed-Stuy that you speak of are primarily located in prime brownstone Bed-Stuy (south of Greene) and in Stuy Heights.
For your information, housing projects exist throughout brownstone Brooklyn. And the housing projects in Boerum Hill/Carroll Gardens (Wycoff, Gowanus), Dumbo/Vinegar Hill (Farragut), Fort Greene (Ingersoll, Whitman), and Clinton Hill (Lafayette), for example, are located much closer to the prime section of those nabes than the Marcy projects is to brownstone Bed-Stuy and Stuy Heights. In any event, the last time I checked all of the above mentioned nabes are doing pretty well despite their proximity to public housing. So no one in Bushwick, which has a ton of housing projects of its own (e.g., Borinquen I and II, Bushwick and Hylan), should be condemning any other nabe because public housing exist within their neighborhood borders.
Lastly, please stop the neighborhood pissing contest. If you’ve been on this site for any length of time you would certainly know that this form of persuasion really hits the mark and is the most ineffective use of one’s time.
Anon 9:40pm: Amen to you. Made a lot of sence. Nuff said!!!!!!
Here’s a suggestion. Don’t buy a condo in ‘hot’ Fakewick. Maybe go a bit deeper into actual bushwick, get a little house, meet your neighbors and see what’s going on in the hood instead of camping out in your shoddy overpriced developer loft.
You might find out that yeah, it’s not the prettiest hood, and yeah it can be dicey here and there….but for the most part it’s a working class, tight knit family neighborhood. You might even make a friend who didn’t go to art school.
Remember that Fort Greene, Clinton hills, and even Bed -stuy are/were drug infested ghetto areas. How many of you would have loved to purchase a few of those homes back then. Bushwick is probably your best bet to obtain a three family at a resonable price within stricking distance to nyc. Don’t sleep on in folks you’ll kick yourself later
Hey, any of you folks looking for a mint condition Heaven 17 extended version of Let Me Go on vinyl?….
But seriously, Bushwick is not some abstract concept in urban living, it is part of the landscape of Brooklyn and New York City in general, it is in fact surrounded by other interesting areas of Brooklyn and Queens which many may not have ventured to explore; Maspeth, Ridgewood, Cypress Hills to name a few. Which are bordered by Glendale, Middle Village, Forest Park, Ozone Park, Forest Hills and so on. There is more to life than proximity to Manhattan. Before you knock these outer neighborhoods by the way, remember that Jack Kerouac once lived in Ozone Park, and Henry Miller enjoyed a few drinks along Myrtle avenue in Bushwick before all that debauchery in Paris. Why even Houdini decided to make Cypress Hills his eternal resting place. Enjoy life’s rich pageant, stop crabbing and buy in for goodness sakes if you want a real future.