Brooklyn's 10 Most Expensive Streets for Shop Owners

Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. Image via Google Maps

It’s no secret that rent for residents in Brooklyn’s ”brand” neighborhoods is too damn high in 2015.

Report after depressing report — from real-estate firms, analysts, city agencies — plod through our inboxes each quarter, running off some more record-high home sales and rental costs. It’s enough to make a girl consider moving to Hoboken. (Not!)

But here’s a report with a slightly different take: For the first time ever, the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) has examined the cost of running a business along one of Brooklyn’s most popular shopping corridors, in its inaugural Third Quarter 2015 Brooklyn Retail Report [PDF].

To write the report, REBNY researchers say they chose the 15 most expensive commercial corridors (as known to REBNY) between Greenpoint and Bay Ridge. They then calculated the average asking rent, per square foot, for ground-floor retail space currently on the market along those corridors.

REBNY says it hopes the report will give “brokers, owners and tenants... a more thorough understanding of the retail market in these areas.”

The results are pretty fascinating, if not all that surprising: We’ve got cameos from Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO and more Williamsburg.

Here are Brooklyn’s top 10 most expensive streets for shop owners, as known to REBNY.

1. Williamsburg’s Bedford Avenue, between Grand Street and North 12th Street: $347 per square foot.
2. Downtown Brooklyn’s Fulton Mall, between Boerum Place and Flatbush Avenue: $287 per square foot.
3. Williamsburg’s North 6th Street, between Driggs Avenue and Kent Avenue: $208 per square foot.
4. Cobble Hill’s Court Street, between Atlantic Avenue and Carroll Street: $162 per square foot.
5. Williamsburg’s North 4th Street, between Driggs Avenue and Kent Avenue: $153 per square foot.
6. Brooklyn Heights’ Montague Street, between Hicks Street and Cadman Plaza: $150 per square foot.
7. Cobble Hill’s Smith Street, between Atlantic Avenue and Carroll Street: $121 per square foot.
8. Williamsburg’s Grand Street, between Havemayer Street and Kent Avenue: $110 per square foot.
9. DUMBO’s Washington Street, between Front Street, Water Street and Main Street: $107 per square foot.
10. Prospect Heights’ Flatbush Avenue, between 5th Avenue and Grand Army Plaza: $102 per square foot.

Runners-up include a couple main drags in Park Slope and Greenpoint, and one in Bay Ridge. Click here for the full report.