Where’s Wallabout?

Neighborhood getting Dumbo-style facelift

Wallabout may not have the name recognition of Dumbo, but with a crush of new retail and residential developments, the district near Brooklyn’s Navy Yard is poised to steal some of the luster of its well-heeled neighbor to the west.

Wallabout — which encompasses a mile-long stretch north of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill between Flushing and Park avenues near the Navy Yard — is the borough’s latest enclave set to undergo a gritty-to-glam story of urban revival. Several small- to medium-sized trendy retailers have set up shop in the neighborhood within the past few years, bringing increased foot traffic to a stretch of blocks still dominated by warehouses.

Wallabout gets its name from the East River’s Wallabout Bay, around which the federal government built the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1801. A produce market operated in the area from the late 1890s until the middle of the 20th century. Although the Navy Yard was the largest naval construction facility in the U.S. during World War II, it fell into disuse by the 1960s, at which time the city purchased 225 acres of land to build the industrial park now located at the site.

Although Wallabout rubs up against Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway — which runs above Park Avenue — makes it seem a world apart from the brownstone-lined streets that characterize its bordering neighborhoods. Most of Wallabout is not easily accessible by subway; the closest train stop is along the G line at Clinton-Washington.

And yet the neighborhood is transforming from a remote industrial wasteland into a culturally vibrant community.

While there has been some residential development in the area, and a conversion of a large city-owned site known as the Brig into housing is imminent (see below), the changing face of Wallabout is largely attributable to its new commercial offerings and increased activity at the Navy Yard.

Wallabout is now home to a celebrated Cuban restaurant, a doggie day-care facility, a vintage store that hosts art shows, a high-end spa and a popular hip-hop club.

Most of the new retail in Wallabout is clustered around the entrance to Steiner Studios, the Navy Yard’s movie production facility. Steiner Studios opened a year ago and is meant to be New York City’s answer to Hollywood.

“Retail doesn’t go to places by accident. You see that in Dumbo,” said Jed Walentas, a principal of Two Trees Management, which controls 75 percent of the properties in Dumbo and transformed the Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood from a faded industrial zone to a residential and retail hot spot.

“I wouldn’t make a one-to-one comparison between Dumbo and Wallabout, but I think the area is becoming successful and will continue to develop,” Walentas said. “Steiner Studios is an unbelievable anchor.”

Like the Navy Yard’s other industrial-use tenants, Steiner Studios is not open to the public, so its effect on Wallabout is not evidenced via direct contact with the neighborhood. The studios are in the midst of a 300,000-square-foot expansion at the Navy Yard that will result in the construction of between 20 and 30 stages at the space and bring an estimated 550 new jobs to the facility.

“We can’t be open to the community because of the nature of production work,” said Doug Steiner, chairman of Steiner Studios. “But the production staff who work on projects at the studio are living in the area and nearby Williamsburg and Greenpoint more and more.”

And when filming wraps, the studio staff has plenty of retail options within a couple blocks of work.

One such option is RePop, a vintage store that says it “caters to the unique taste of the distinguished Brooklynite.” The store, which opened last summer, is crammed with well-preserved antiques and oddities, including button collections, barstools, Danish Modern furniture and Mod dresses purchased at Kansas City estate sales.

“We chose the space because we’re artists, and we wanted a space in the store where we could paint,” said Russell Boyle, one of RePop’s owners. The store has an upstairs studio level where Boyle works, and every first Friday of the month it hosts shows for local artists.

Boyle himself moved to Wallabout from Park Slope about six months ago, but he already knew the area well from artist friends who had lived there for years. Many artists have live-work studio spaces in Wallabout’s warehouses.

“The neighborhood is changing at the speed of light,” Boyle said, “and many of the artists who have lived here a long time have mixed feelings about the stores that are coming in.”

Commercial spaces in Wallabout are abundant, and rent is still a relative bargain, according to Brian Leary, a managing partner at Massey Knakal who was recently marketing a ground-floor space at 73 Washington Avenue.

“Ground-floor space is going for around $15 to $25 a square foot,” Leary said. “The level of interest in the area has gone up as Clinton Hill and Fort Greene develop more and change from solely mom-and-pop stores.”

Much of the new retail in the area is on the ground floor of a warehouse at 275 Park Avenue that was converted to luxury apartments five years ago. The development, called the Chocolate Factory, has loft, one- and two-bedroom rentals going for between $1,600 and $2,800. Management for the building says it has been 90 percent occupied since opening in 2002 and that vacancies are rented quickly.

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Ground-floor tenants at the Chocolate Factory include Kiki’s Pet Hotel & Playcare, Mojito Cuban Cuisine — which garnered a favorable review in the New York Times — and the high-end spa Body by Brooklyn.

Shawn Shortall, the manager of Body by Brooklyn, moved to an apartment in the Chocolate Factory three months ago.

“I moved here for both the job and the apartment,” said Shortall. “There seem to be a lot of Manhattan people moving to the area.”

With the exception of the Chocolate Factory’s apartments, however, housing in Wallabout is in short supply. The Chocolate Factory received a zoning variance to construct residential units.

In this respect, too, Wallabout’s story may end up echoing Dumbo’s. Dumbo’s manufacturing designation was never rezoned to allow for residential development, and new condo developments in the neighborhood have all received zoning variances from the city.

At present, the city does not intend to change Wallabout’s zoning.

“There is no City Planning initiative for that area,” said Jennifer Torres, a spokeswoman for the Department of City Planning.

Developers, however, agreed that the area seems ripe for residential construction.

“There are certainly a lot of residential pressures there,” said Walentas.

And Steiner noted that former warehouses are hot properties in Brooklyn.

“The conversion of industrial buildings into residential uses will continue,” he said.

Local activists and residents are worried about whether Wallabout will become another Brooklyn neighborhood with what they see as too many pricey condo developments.

“We’re waiting to see to what extent it will look like Fort Greene and to what extent it will look like Dumbo,” said Brad Lander, director of the Pratt Center for Community Development. “I’m a big believer that we need to respect space for jobs, and if there was a rezoning it could undermine manufacturing space.”

One artist who has lived in studio space in the area for seven years said the area hasn’t transformed dramatically since she’s lived there. Nevertheless, she’s seen the Chocolate Factory change from an abandoned warehouse that used to house “a homeless nightclub” into what she calls “the yuppie box,” and has witnessed the opening of a bottle-service hip-hop club on Washington Avenue called Reign Lounge that has drawn celebrities like Spike Lee and Clive Owen.

“People wouldn’t clean up their dog shit; it used to be that sort of neighborhood, and to some extent, it still is,” she said. “It’s not going to become exactly like Dumbo because neighboring Clinton Hill is still very middle class and ethnically diverse. Also, the closest train is the G.”

Wallabout development to include affordable housing

Last month the Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced that Dunn Development Corp. and L & M Equity Participants had been selected to redevelop the site of the Brig, an old naval prison across from the Navy Yard that was torn down in 2005. The developers purchased the 103,000-square-foot site from the city for $1 and will build a 434-unit complex where 77 percent of the units will be set aside for low- to middle-income residents.

“The city has selected a redevelopment proposal that will transform the Brig site into a vibrant mixed-use and mixed-income community and will provide affordable and supportive housing, as well as much-needed community and open spaces to the Wallabout neighborhood,” said HPD Commissioner Shaun Donovan.

Brad Lander, director of the Pratt Center for Community Development, said it remains to be seen whether future residential developments in Wallabout will include affordable housing.

“The Brig will be mostly affordable,” he said. “I think there’s a chance, however, that other new residential developments in the area will only be 10 percent affordable.”

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