Haters gonna hate: Brooklyn is not what it used to be. Gone are the times when Manhattanites jeered and sneered at this underdog outer borough – now everyone is scrambling to get a piece of it. Here are five of our favorite Brooklyn neighborhoods currently on the rise.
Greenpoint
The Williamsburg effect is spreading, and by sheer geographic proximity, Greenpoint is next. Once a neighborhood stained with the effects of post-war industrial decline, a new waterfront development from the Park Tower Group is in the pipeline, featuring huge residential towers and new green spaces. The ambitious project, which includes a new public school and more than a thousand affordable houses, will attract new investment to the area – or at the very least, a truckload of hipsters. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt the hit TV series “Girls” is filmed here: join the crew!
Prospect Heights
Prospect Heights is the home of the impressive new Barclays Center: enough said. It seems everyone wants a slice of the action in this neighborhood at the moment; even favorite cheesecake restaurant Junior’s is opening another location here. And with plans for more than a dozen skyscraping residential towers already underway, Prospect Heights is quite literally on the rise.
Bedford-Stuyvesant
Notoriously riddled with drug crime in the 1980s, Bedford-Stuyvesant has, much like Harlem, been gradually rebuilding ever since. An irresistible abundance of brownstone rowhouses is attracting more and more young professionals to the area, as well as students, artists and creative types. It’s only a matter of time before the coffee houses and trendy dive bars follow.
Red Hook
A couple of neighborhoods away from the waterfront bars and restaurants of Dumbo, it was only a matter of time before Red Hook got, well, hooked into the artsy warehouse trend. The New York Dock Building is a cavernous industrial space that is set to be transformed into a creative hub of music, fashion and art, with a host of apartments and studios under one roof. Each of the units is predicted to cost in excess of $500,000, so you’d better start saving.
Downtown Brooklyn
OK, stick with us on this one: Flatbush Avenue Extension may not exactly give the sense of Brooklyn going places. But the lackluster buildings and shopping malls seem to have inspired a new wave of investment. This is rumored to be the hottest new development site in Brooklyn; projects include the rejuvenation of Fulton Street Mall, which has been looking tired for years, and a number of impressive high-rises including the 32-story Bam South Tower.
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Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to… whose guides cover all the best hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, sights, shops and spas.
