Bed-Stuy Added Nearly 8,000 New Homes Since 2010, Study Finds

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — During a decade of rapid development in New York City — specifically in Brooklyn — few neighborhoods gained as much new housing as Bed-Stuy, a new analysis found.

Community Board 3, which stretches over almost all of Bed-Stuy, gained nearly 8,000 new housing units between 2010 and 2020 — taking into account building demolitions and mergers of existing apartments that offset some of the new construction.

The gains in CD3 were the third-highest of any neighborhood in Brooklyn and sixth-most of any community district in the city, according to the study by the Department of City Planning.

The totals include nearly 4,000 units of housing built specifically in Bedford, the city's designated name for the western portion of Bed-Stuy bordered by Williamsburg and Clinton Hill.

Both Williamsburg and Clinton Hill were among the neighborhoods that saw the most housing growth in all of New York City. Brooklyn as a whole added more housing than any other borough.

Williamsburg and Greenpoint's Community Board 1 has gained a staggering 20,000 units of housing since 2010, the most of anywhere in the five boroughs.

Community Board 2 — which stretches over Clinton Hill, Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn — gained about 15,000 units of housing, surpassed only by Brooklyn's CD1 and Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan.

Those areas stand in stark contrast to the minimal gains seen in a few neighborhoods like the Upper East Side, where demolitions and mergers nearly erased all new housing gains since 2010. In Brooklyn, Bay Ridge's Community Board 10 and Canarsie's Community Board 18 saw the least amount of added housing.

In Bed-Stuy, the officials found that many of the housing additions were through alterations such as subdivisions or enlargements of townhomes and townhouses, according to the study.

Alterations were also a large factor in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, but came in the form of office space, hotels and former industrial buildings being converted to apartments.

Officials noted that rezonings that allowed construction in formerly non-residential construction — like Williamsburg's in 2005 — spurred the highest concentrations of housing growth.

The study was based on filings with the Department of Buildings starting Jan. 1, 2010 through June 1, 2020.

Minimal gains in some neighborhoods, which were first reported by THE CITY, may embolden advocates who are pushing to rezone wealthier neighborhoods in order to build more housing.