Flatbush Ave. Is Priciest Retail Spot Outside Manhattan: Study

BROOKLYN, NY — Brooklyn's Flatbush Avenue is the priciest spot to buy retail or office space outside of Manhattan's main corridors, a new study found.

The Brooklyn corridor — which runs all the way from the Manhattan Bridge to the Marine Parkway Bridge on the other side of the borough — was the fourth most expensive street in New York City for commercial sales this year, according to the Metro Manhattan report.

With a median sales price for commercial space of $5.6 million, it was the priciest street from all the outer boroughs. Only Manhattan's First, Third and Lexington avenues rose above Flatbush, the report shows.

Researchers credited the rising commercial and office space prices to Brooklyn's burgeoning spot in the commercial real estate market. The borough had 13 streets on the 30 most expensive commercial corridors list, while Manhattan only had nine.

"The Brooklyn office market is thriving in 2019; even though the borough tends to attract smaller companies, the likes of tech startups and creative businesses, its appeal to commercial buyers continues to intensify," researchers said. "While sales here are no match for those closed on Lexington or Third Avenues, investors are eager to bet on the Brooklyn commercial market, and assets are changing hands at an accelerated pace."

The researchers noted the borough's new tallest building, Brooklyn Point, as an example of how Flatbush Avenue's fast-growing developments are markers of the borough's commercial rise.

This year, the priciest deal on Flatbush was a $100 million sale of a 270 Flatbush Avenue Ext. building, which the analysis guessed will lead to a bigger development being built where the current three-story office building stands. That building accounted for more than half of the $191-million total for the street's 13 sales this year, the report shows.

Other expensive Brooklyn spots included President Street, which came in seventh with a median $3 million price point, and Fourth Avenue, which landed in the number eight spot with its $2.95-million median.

Metro Manhattan's report, released Tuesday, lists the 30 most expensive streets and neighborhoods for commercial real estate sales in 2019. Streets and neighborhoods where there were fewer than 10 commercial sales were excluded from the analysis, the report says.

The priciest neighborhood was Manhattan's Financial District, where the median sales price was nearly $44 million, according to the report.