Beloved Carroll Gardens Bar Angry Wade’s Will Soon Be a Bank


Photo via Facebook
So, you know that “for rent” sign posted outside of Angry Wade’s back in November that we kind of blew off because the bar seemed to surge on like it had for the past 10+ years? Yeah, it wasn’t actually lighthearted wall décor, it was a clear proposition for those who dared to replace the veteran Wisconsin-fan bar. And someone, or rather something, took the bait.
DNAinfo talked with building owner Pedro Tavarez, and not only is the bar slotted to close–a scheduled date hasn’t been released–but a bank will most likely demount the lion head from its red building throne. The closure is the result of Taverez raising the building’s rent from $10,000 to $16,000/month, a trend that isn’t new to Carroll Gardens, and certainly not Brooklyn as a whole.
Back in October, a StreetEasy market report noted that the rents in four Brooklyn neighborhoods–DUMBO, Williamsburg, Cobble Hill, and Downtown Brooklyn– were surpassing Manhattan, with “median asking rent in Dumbo expected to reach $4,079 in 2015, roughly 31 percent higher than Manhattan’s median asking rent and behind only three other neighborhoods in the city: Central Park South ($5,898), Tribeca ($5,542), and Flatiron ($4,177).”
And where does this part of Smith Street fit in all this? On the Brooklyn scale, the Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill/Boerum Hill area has the 7th highest rent in the borough. But it’s only getting worse: There is a major increase in the asking rent for retail corridors in the area, particularly on nearby Court Street between Atlantic Avenue and Carroll Street where the average asking rent is $162 per square foot, the third highest retail rent increase in Brooklyn. And so the Manhattanification of Smith Street continues; say hello to your bank and drugstore overlords.