Franklin Street Is New Bedford Avenue, Report Says

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN — Depending on your personal taste, either cash in or escape Franklin Street now as it could be well on its way to becoming the next Bedford Avenue, according to one report. Franklin is expected to get a huge boom in retail and residents, including almost 6,000 new apartments and a likely resulting spike in retail rents, according to one Brooklyn-based broker's report on this year's projected real estate in the borough.

"A street that still captures the charm and character of Brooklyn, Franklin Street is poised to benefit from the retail success story of nearby Manhattan Avenue, revamped citywide ferry service that will ease accessibility,
and 6,000 new residential units slated to be completed in the coming years," the report by Brooklyn broker and research firm CPEX says.

Franklin was named by CPEX as one of six retail areas "poised for growth" in 2017, alongside the intersection of Fulton and Lafayette in Fort Greene, Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights, the intersection of Flatbush and Church in Flatbush, Wyckoff Avenue in Bushwick and Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park.

Everyone wants to get in on the next hot spot in Brooklyn, considering the asking rent prices on Brooklyn's current hottest strip, Bedford Avenue between N. Third and Sixth streets, have increased a whopping 477 percent over the past decade, according to the firm.

Also contributing to financial growth in Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick are the myriad new restaurants and bars popping up in the neighborhoods, the report says. These three Brooklyn neighborhoods have, by far, the highest density in restaurants and bars in all of Brooklyn at 31 percent, according to the report. This could make it easier for the retail boom in the areas to last, considering e-commerce doesn't yet have an easy replacement for bars and restaurants like it does for retail, the report argued.

For some residents, the story that Greenpoint's Franklin Street is the sexiest spot in Brooklyn is an old one. A whole 10 years ago, Brooklyn Paper wrote: "The intersection of Greenpoint Avenue and Franklin Street has become the epicenter of the neighborhood's dining and nightlife scene, helping to further the revival that has put this warehouse-heavy neighborhood on the real-estate radar."

Photo of Greenpoint waterfront by Sreejithk2000/Wikimedia Commons/CC by 3.0