Bedford Avenue Is the Most Expensive Place to Open a Business in Brooklyn
As far as Brooklyn rents go, everyone has a pretty good sense of what constitutes a (relative) deal in a given hood. Cost of living conversations might be depressing, but depressing conversations have never scared New Yorkers, and all that comparing you’ve done with all your friends about how much money they hemorrhage every month has made you a pretty informed renter.
If, however, you’re thinking about opening a business on a popular street in Brooklyn, you might have a less fixed sense of what you’ll be asked to pay per square foot on a ground floor commercial space. But you’re now in luck, because the Real Estate Board of New York has put together a report—for the very first time in Brooklyn—of the average price per square foot on the most expensive retail blocks from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge.
As the Carroll Garden Patch reports, all the streets you’d suspect appear on the top ten list and, as you likely concluded immediately, Bedford Avenue between Grand Street and North Twelfth is where you will be forced to fork over the most–on average, $347 per square foot.
In more encouraging news, Greenpoint is still a comparative steal. Setting up shop on Franklin or Manhattan Avenues will cost you an average of $63 and $65 per square foot. And Park Slope, too–only around 80 bucks. Hallelujah. You can make rent and also afford some shelving and wall paint.
But in other parts of Brooklyn, things get pricey again: Commercial space along the Fulton Mall area–which is experiencing a resurgence, according to the report, because people aren’t afraid to move downtown anymore–goes for an average of $287 per square foot. In Cobble Hill, spaces along Court and Smith Streets go for an average $162 and $121.
You can read the full (not very lengthy) report here. Next time the Linda Richman in your group say, “Here’s a topic: retail rental costs in Brooklyn, discuss among yourselves,” as a good New Yorker, you’ll have plenty to say.