It was more than a year ago that neighborhood institution Sahadi’s petitioned to expand the gourmet & Middle Eastern food market at 187 Atlantic Avenue. Good things come to those who wait: Sahadi’s will close from September 17-23, as it begins an extensive expansion that will tie in three storefronts. Read more on the Brooklyn Heights blog here.
Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7829
Reminder: This Sunday, September 9th, the Montague Street BID launches its annual Summer Space, with a fun-filled day of freebies. Brooklyn Heights’ main thoroughfare will be closed to traffic and re-imagined as a pedestrian oasis from noon to 5 p.m., as restaurants expand outdoor seating, retailers offer special promotions and services, and hundreds of tables and chairs line Montague Street.
The day includes opera by The Martha Cardona Theater; AfroBrazilian Samba Reggae by Batala New York City, an all women’s drumming band; Muzik by DJ Ricardo Campos; and dances by the Brooklyn Ballet’s Company and Youth Ensemble. Free outdoor yoga and Zumba classes will convene, as well as chess tables, craft-making demonstrations; and for the kids, a photo booth, scavenger hunt, hula-hoops and chalk drawing.
Summer Space will also take place on Sunday, September 23, featuring the Brooklyn Heights Association’s Third Annual Dog Show, from 1-3 p.m. (More here).
For the full rundown on Summer Space, take a look here.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/47180
The ever-entertaining end-of-summer Atlantic Antic—which brings madness, music and playful mayhem to a 10-block stretch of Atlantic Avenue, bordering Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill—will convene Sunday, September 30, noon to 6 p.m.
Sponsored by the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation, it offers 500+ retailers and pop-up shops pawning goodies, food, dancing, family fun and more, between Hicks Street & Fourth Avenue. Read all about it on the Brooklyn Heights Blog here.
(Photos: Chuck Taylor)
Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7801
The ever-entertaining end-of-summer Atlantic Antic—which brings madness, music and playful mayhem to a 10-block stretch of Atlantic Avenue, bordering Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill—will convene Sunday, September 30, noon to 6 p.m. Sponsored by the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation (AALDC), it offers 500+ retailers and pop-up shops pawning goodies, food, 
dancing, family fun and more, between Hicks & Fourth Avenue.
The 38th-annual Atlantic Antic is “much more than your average street festival,” organizers say. “The longstanding and well-loved celebration of a myriad of cultures crosses several historic neighborhoods and brings together a wide array of sights and sounds. The Antic is an exhilarating experience for the whole family.” Imagine: belly dancers, falafel, family sing-alongs and Homer & Mrs. Fink in their Brooklyn Bugle booth, all in a single setting.
This year’s theme is “Have it All on Atlantic: From the Waterfront to the Arena.” AALDC President Christian Haag declares, “In a year where Atlantic Avenue has grown exponentially, I am happy to say the Atlantic Antic has, too. Come again or for the first time and see why this is New York City’s greatest street fair.” For more about the Atlantic Antic, including directions and parking information, see here. The event will be held rain or shine (Photos: Chuck Taylor)
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46989
When The New York Times pens a story on the revitalization of Downtown Brooklyn’s Fulton Mall, it heralds a watermark moment: sort of like, if the Times sniffs it as a reality, the revival has got to have credence. Its August 28 piece announced “National Retailers Discover a Brooklyn Mall.” Mind you—to toot our own horn—the Brooklyn Heights Blog has been heralding the Mall’s shift from low-budget chains to national retailers month by month, and more recently, week after week, for the past year. 
The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s $300 million public improvements initiative to remake the once-flailing shopping mecca got the ball rolling at the beginning of the decade after 30 years of neglect, with newly paved streets and traffic patterns, wider sidewalks, new streetlights and bus terminals. Much credit also has to go to Shake Shack, whose opening in December 2011 was perhaps the landmark launch of a chain willing to take a 
chance on the promise of Fulton Mall.
And just look at it now. This year alone, the 17-block walkway has welcomed (or soon will): Gap Factory Outlet, Brooklyn Industries, Starbucks, Raymour & Flanigan, Victoria’s Secret, Express, Armani Exchange, Nordstrom Rack, H&M, TJ Maxx, Aeropostale, Seattle’s Best, Century 21 and the mammoth City Point’s 1.6 million square foot retail, commercial and residential project, due for completion in 2018. Add to that the development of Willoughby Square Park. Albee Square abutting City Point, new restaurants along Adams Street and the coming of the Downtown Tech Triangle… So are you paying attention Apple?
Meanwhile, the ink keeps on flowing about Downtown Brooklyn’s rejuvenation. Racked posted a piece, “National Chains Are Still Racing to Open on Fulton Street,” which discusses Raymour & Flanigan furniture store’s 28,000 sf lease for the second floor of 490 Fulton Street, scheduled to open in February and notes an undisclosed developer that’s close to signing a 45,000sf lease with a major apparel retailer.
In addition, The Real Deal wrote about “How Fulton Street is attracting national retailers,” pointing out that Century 21 is the first department store to open in the neighborhood in some 50 years. The Daily News noted the area’s revolution, “long home to neon-lit sneaker shops, hot dog stands and cell phone stores” to its reincarnation as “state-of-the-art Brooklyn, complete with skyscraping condo towers and flowery landscaping along Flatbush Ave. Extension.” Curbed remarked, “Fulton Street Mall Gets Popular,” while The New York Observer profiled Michael Weiss, CEO of Express, which opened a new outlet in August at 490 Fulton Street. Even AP alerted its press members about the in-the-works story. And let’s not forget one of the primary reasons for the area’s boom: a revolution in Downtown highrise housing.
BHB minions, we are indeed eyewitnesses to a truly historic urban revival—just steps away from our homes in Brooklyn Heights—which is destined to forever change the texture of the neighborhood… literally week by week. Hey, who needs Manhattan, anyway?
(Photos: Downtown Brooklyn Partnership/Century 21 rendering by Cook + Fox Architects via WSJ)
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46864
The Brooklyn Heights Housing Works at 122 Montague Street will host its “Best Of Fall” sales event Saturday, September 8, from noon to 8 p.m., offering the thrift’s best selection of fashion, furniture, artwork, books and accessories. The annual affair takes place at 12 of the shop’s New York locations, from August 30 through September 25, and includes a window auction featuring designs from Bungalow 5, Dennis Miller Associates, M2L, Naula, High Falls Mercantile, Niedermaier and Ziering Interiors.
Clearance prices are be in effect at Housing Works in the days leading up to “Best of Fall,” while the shop will be closed Friday, September 7, in preparation for the event. Supporter members ($480+) are allowed entry at 11 a.m., and Advocate Members ($120+) at 11:30 a.m., with general admission at noon.
Housing Works’ mission is to raise funds for and awareness of AIDS; the highest number of reported cases in New York City are in Brooklyn. In 2005, its corporate headquarters relocated to Willoughby Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Heights store opened in January 2007.
(Photo: BHB/Sarah Portlock)
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46855
Following a June mandate to vacate its Downtown Brooklyn digs as the burgeoning mixed-use City Point project begins a new phase of development, urban foodie & retail oasis Dekalb Market was intending to scout out a new space for the holiday season. But it looks like we can fuhgeddaboudit. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the space—which opened last year at Flatbush and Willoughby Avenues—will not reopen this year after it shutters on September 30.
According to Adam Zucker, a spokesman for Urban Space, the firm that runs the shipping container bazaar, it is continuing to seek out the right site for the collective: “Look, we are a 60-container market and there are not that many available spaces that are the right fit in terms of size, location, and long-term status. Long story short is we need to find the right new location.”
That, however, has a number of the small business owners that populated Dekalb Market up in arms. They say they’re now stuck without a place to peddle their wares this fall and winter because Urban Space broke their leases to make room for development on the Downtown lot, then failed to find a new site for the market. The company previously promised to “move and reopen in the space of a few weeks” when it announced it would vacate the current market to make way for City Point development, which will include a Century 21 and potentially Brooklyn’s tallest building, Brooklyn Paper says.
Vendors are griping about plenty more. Read the full story in Brooklyn Paper here.
(Photo: Chuck Taylor)
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46623
One after another… The big boom continues in Downtown Brooklyn, with yet another national retailer signing on to set up digs on Fulton Mall’s 17-block stretch from Boerum Place to Flatbush Avenue. Furniture chain Raymour & Flanigan will occupy a robust 28,000 square feet on the second floor at 490 Fulton Street.
As BHB readers well know, Raymour & Flanigan joins upcoming Century 21, H&M, T.J. Maxx, which are now under construction in the neighborhood; alongside the recently opened Gap Factory Outlet, Áeropostale, Starbucks, Brooklyn Industries, Seattle’s Best and Express. And around the corner on Adams Street, Potbelly just joined the burgeoning “Restaurant Row,” which will soon encompass Panera Bread, Chipotle, Sugar and Plumm, and American BBQ and Beer.
Scott Milnamow, a senior VP of real estate development at Raymour & Flanigan, told the New York Times that this will be the largest furniture store in Downtown Brooklyn. “We looked at a number of different neighborhoods, but felt like other national retailers are going to Fulton Street, and we wanted to be a part of that tenant mix.” The store is scheduled to open in February.
The Times says that Armani Exchange, Victoria’s Secret and Nordstrom Rack have also been sniffing around Downtown Brooklyn. “I’ve been doing deals on this street for 20 years, and only recently are we starting to see a real shift toward national retailers,” noted Barry Fishbach, an EVP at RKF.
The Times offers an overall look at Downtown Brooklyn’s rejuvenation, in an article titled “National Retailers Discover a Brooklyn Mall” here. While NYT is coming late to the party in discovering what BHB readers have been reading for months regarding Fulton Mall’s rejuvenation, the story does offer interesting details about the anatomy of retailer deals.
(Photo: Chuck Taylor)
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46569
A shiny new Express store at 490 Fulton Street along Fulton Mall has opened in the rapidly gentrifying Downtown Brooklyn shopping destination. Michael Weiss, CEO of the men’s and women’s clothier and a Brooklyn native, was present for the festive “block party” opening last Wednesday. He tells the New York Observer that he began his career as a management trainee and associate buyer right along the corridor, at former Fulton Mall department store Abraham & Strauss, now the home of Macy’s.
Express occupies 10,000 square feet in a building that was originally also going to house a 40,000-square-foot Filene’s Basement/Syms hybrid, before the chain went bust. Still planned: dorms on the upper floors for Long Island University students.
Express joins the recent coming of Starbucks, Brooklyn Industries, Gap Factory Outlet on Fulton Mall, and future retailers H&M and Century 21, with new tenants being announced seemingly every month.
The Observer reports that Weiss grew up in Fort Greene. He recalls Fulton Mall in the late 1960s and early 1970s: “It was just the greatest place to be. So much activity. So much action. Brooklyn was it,” that is, before Brooklyn, along with the rest of the city, began its precipitous decline into bankruptcy and decay. “It was very different than it is today. It was very optimistic. Brooklyn was quite a place in those years. It was a place of expectation and aspiration. It was solidly middle class, everyone sort of felt like they had a shot if they worked hard,” he adds.
Weiss says he always believed Fulton Mall would gentrify: “I knew that street had to be rejuvenated at some point. The big question was when a company could afford to get into the place and make it work. You don’t want to be too early, and you don’t want to be late. I really think now is the time.”
The new Downtown Express store unveils a new interiors concept, designed by Japanese architect Masamichi Katayama of the firm Wonderwall: “We want to elevate the retail experience for national stores, really take it somewhere new,” Weiss tells the Observer. “The whole art, bohemian community, has added to the fashion profile, the creative fashion profile of the borough. They’re not high-fashion dressers, they’re creative dressers.”
(Photo: Chuck Taylor)
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46142
Streetwear sneaker brand and skate shoes retailer Supra has leased a shop at 288 Atlantic Avenue near Smith Street in Boerum Hill, according to real estate firm CPEX, which rented the space. Brownstoner reports that the store The Southern Cali-based company also has a store at 4 Prince Street in SoHo. The store flanks nearby Lululemon Athletica, Brooklyn Industries, Brooklyn Tattoo and Brooklyn Heights Bike Shoppe.
Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7758