NYC boulevard near Barclays Center transforms from retail wasteland into bastion of posh shops

Atlantic Avenue west of Barclays Center – once known for Arab food shops, antiques discounters and too many empty storefronts – has become the hot new kid on the block in Brooklyn retail.It isn’t nearly as pricey as Williamsburg’s Bedford Avenue and North Sixth Street, where global brands abound.But its growing mystique as a fashion-and-design nexus has put it on the map for neighborhood-focused merchants and shoppers alike.“Atlantic has come a long way on the retail front, from new national tenants to well-designed cocktail lounges to upscale boutiques and now, health and beauty servcies have planted their flags, too,” said RIPCO vice-president Alex Beard.Atlantic Avenue “has become Brooklyn’s version of Madison Avenue,” Jordan Barowitz, an Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District board member, told Realty Check.“Not a Brooklyn replication of Madison Avenue — Williamsburg has that covered with Chanel and Hermes — but a bastion of luxury retailers with a distinct Brooklyn identity.”Part of the appeal for merchants is that rents on Atlantic Avenue between Barclays and the BQE barely touch $100 per square foot on the west end.

Those rents ramp down into the mid-$70s per square foot between Court and Bond streets, and dip to as low as the $50s near Flatbush Avenue.Even the highest rent is less than half of what landlords command in Williamsburg, Dumbo and sections of Flatbush Avenue.The result has been a vacancy rate of 11.8%.down from 15.1% before the pandemic, according to the Atlantic Avenue BID, which covers the stretch west of Barclays.That’s better than the current 15% vacancy rate on well-heeled Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights.Atlantic Avenue has become the sweet spot between nascent trendiness and full-scale gentrification, according to Barowitz.“What makes (the shop owners) unique is that not only are they ‘makers’ of their own lines, but many of them do manufacturing on site, creating an experiential retail experie...