Seventh Avenue Sell-Out a Boon to Fifth Avenue
Although just noticed by the New York Times, the familiar cycle of colorful mom-and-pop stores being replaced by sterile chains has been playing itself in Park Slope for several years: As chain stores continue to replace small businesses along Seventh Avenue, its hip, younger sibling, Fifth Avenue, is becoming what its older brother once was:…
Although just noticed by the New York Times, the familiar cycle of colorful mom-and-pop stores being replaced by sterile chains has been playing itself in Park Slope for several years:
As chain stores continue to replace small businesses along Seventh Avenue, its hip, younger sibling, Fifth Avenue, is becoming what its older brother once was: a home for entrepreneurial adventurers, many of whom, forced out by rising rents, have set up shop two blocks east and a world away.According to Kenneth Adams, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, rents on Fifth Avenue are roughly $30 to $40 per square foot, half the rate along Seventh Avenue, which, with Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, commands the highest commercial rents in the borough. As a result, few retailers can afford a Seventh Avenue address.
Are there Park Slopers out there who prefer living further down the hill as a result of this shift or is the desirability of the higher avenues unaffected by the Soho-ization of Seventh Avenue?
As One Strip Goes Stodgy, Another Turns Hip [NY Times]
Speaking of No-Man’s Land, I saw that Corcoran dropped the prices of the $1000/sq. ft condos on 7th St between 3rd and 4th. Still no indication on their website that they have sold any of them, though. And it looks like the 15th St apartments between 5th and 6th are coming on the market. It will be interesting to see what those get priced at. From the outside, it looks like some of the higher apartments might be pretty nice, with great views, while some of the lower ones look like that might be dark, etc.
does anybody who writes this stuff do research? this story is 5 years old as are the rent quotes. do you really think you can find a 1000 square foot retail space for 2500 a month on fifth avenue (30 dollars a square foot). not to mention the same size store on 7th avenue for 5000 dollars(60 dollars a square foot). a reality check would be rents of 50
dollars and up on fifth and 80 and up on 7th. oh and the writer knocked 7th avenue for the crime of having a subway(the sandwich shop). at last check fifth avenue had a ,quiznos,dunkin donuts, genovese, rite aid and subway. do the research? this is from a stodgy 7th avenue shop owner.
ps when i lived on second street between 5th/6th avenues 10 years ago my friends said i lived in the ghetto. and this doesn’t mean i hate fifth avenue
The desirability of the higher avenues is essentially unaffected by the changes on 7th and 5th Avenues (homes near the Park will always be at a premium). What has changed is that the border of the “acceptable” or “safe” parts of the Slope keeps moving downhill — from 7th Avenue, then 6th, now 5th and arguably even 4th Avenue, thanks to all of the development happening on blocks between 4th and 5th. (I do think it will be a long time, however, before the other “no man’s land” — between 4th and 3rd Avenues, or arguably between 4th and Smith Street — is breached.)
I’ve lived in Brooklyn since 1984 — first in Boerum Hill, then Clinton Hill, and then three different locations in Park Slope as of 1993. To deal with alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules when I lived on 7th Street (when that was considered the South Slope!), I used to park my car in the North Slope from Wednesday through Friday. I often ended up at the corner of Berkeley and Fifth, and quite frankly did not always feel safe parking there late at night (or walking home from there — I certainly never walked down 5th Avenue; I would walk up to 7th Avenue, and then walk south toward 7th Street). Now, although that particular corner is essentially unchanged (there is a large tenement building there), Fifth Avenue itself is alive and well-lit and safe well into the night. Moreover, I now live in a million-dollar apartment just one block farther up, on Berkeley between 6th & 7th. When I first moved below 6th Avenue into a rental in the mid-90s, it was still considered somewhat edgy to live below 6th Avenue. Strange but true!
Of course, when I walk past the families who still hang out in front of their tenement apartments on Berkeley between 5th & 6th (usually when on my way to a eat a gourmet dinner at one of the wonderful 5th Avenue restaurants), I do wonder what will happen to them if their buildings are ever “developed” or “renovated” and turned into luxury condominiums. Let’s not forget the displacement that development also engenders.
I recently moved from Eastern Pkwy where I was relatively close to 7th ave, to 4th Ave. Being close to 5th ave is so much more enjoyable. Whether for dining, drinking, shopping, 5th ave is much more alive to me than 7th. Besides, the 5th ave bus comes so frequently that it’s a breeze travelling from one end of 5th to my stop on 19th.
Having the best of all worlds – 7th Ave, 5th Ave, and those immediate needs served on 4th Avenue (office supplies, car wash, gasoline, etc) is what living in the middle of the Slope (between 6th & 7th, between 1st and 5th Streets) is all about. Big plus with upgrading the quality of students at John Jay HS. It’s nice to see the eclectic newness of 5th Avenue. People are trying harder there.
MC,
Surely you jest. Everything south of 9th St is “no-mans land”??? That is laughable. I see plenty of people everyweek going about their business in South Slope with no problem crossing 9th St.
Where are you getting these ideas?
Wow, I live in No-Man’s Land. I never knew that. Funny how much I enjoy living in No-Man’s Land.
RW
Anon at 9:39AM:
The impression that I’ve gotten from others is that the No-Man’s Land tends to be everything south of 9th Street. I find this entirely silly, but some people seem to never want to cross over 9th Street. 🙂
Does this mean 3rd Av. is going to be the new 5th Av?