Q1 2025 MARKET REPORT
Updated quarterly, this report from the DBP Real Estate team provides insight on real estate market data, development progress and commercial leasing activity in Downtown Brooklyn.
DEVELOPMENT SNAPSHOT
COMPLETED PROJECTS (SINCE 2004 REZONING)
23,519 housing units
2.8 M office sq. ft.
2,368 hotel rooms
UNDER CONSTRUCTION + PIPELINES PROJECTS
9,949 housing units
737 K commercial sq. ft.
103 hotel rooms
NEW: INTERACTIVE DEVELOPMENT DASHBOARD
DBP’s Real Estate and Planning team has launched a new, interactive Development Dashboard that tracks all projects completed, under construction, and proposed since the 2004 rezoning. The tool allows users to explore an interactive map with project details, photos, and links. Users can search and filter properties by category and date. The page also includes a data dashboard for filtering statistics and a downloadable spreadsheet.
COMMERCIAL OFFICE LEASES
Brooklyn Prospect Charter School has signed a 35-year lease for 150,000 sq. ft. at The Wheeler to open a high school for 1,200 students. The campus will include state-of-the-art labs, a double-height gym with a full basketball court, professional arts facilities, and specialized courses. It will join BPCS’s existing elementary and middle schools at 80 Willoughby St., and be alongside St. Francis College. The two schools will occupy about 70% of the 622,000 sq. ft. building.
Event planning app, Partiful, signed a lease for 5,000 sq. ft. on the eighth floor of 397 Bridge Street. Partiful, which previously occupied co-working office space in Green Desk at 147 Prince Street, is relocating and expanding within the neighborhood.
Gersh Academy, a K-12 school for autistic students, inked a lease for 57,500 sq. ft. at 25 Chapel Street. The deal includes 25,000 square feet leased from the landlord, while 32,500 square feet was subleased from Brooklyn Labs for space previously used by the lab and New York City College of Technology. The asking rent was $38 per sq. ft.
Tutor Perini, a large construction firm that is the general contractor at the Brooklyn Jail Project, will occupy 10,500 sq. ft at 111 Livingston Street.
COMMERCIAL OFFICE VACANCY + RENTS
In the first quarter of 2025, office asking rents in Downtown Brooklyn remained stable at $57.99 per sq. ft., a -0.2% decrease quarter-over-quarter and a -0.3% decrease year-over-year. Overall vacancies rose to 22.2%, up 200 bps from the previous quarter and 70 bps from the same period last year. The rise is due to 354,000 sq. ft. of office space vacated by NYC Human Resources Administration at 250 Livingston Street.
Downtown Brooklyn’s asking rents remain $2.95 per sq. ft. higher than in Lower Manhattan, where rents decreased slightly to $55.04 per sq. ft. Vacancy in Lower Manhattan saw a slight improvement at 23.9%, though still 170 bps higher than Downtown Brooklyn. Midtown and Midtown South continue to command the highest rents at $76.58 and $78.59 per sq. ft., respectively, though Midtown South maintains a higher vacancy rate of 25.4%.
Overall Average Asking Rent PSF by Submarket
Source: Cushman & Wakefield
Overall Average Office Vacancy by Submarket
Source: Cushman & Wakefield
RETAIL
NEW RETAIL ACTIVITY
Downtown Brooklyn saw nine new retail openings and several leasing announcements during the first quarter of 2025. This includes:
• Nike will open its Downtown Brooklyn 16,000-square-foot store at Atlantic Center, across from Barclays, in late May.
• Le Café Coffee has opened at Hanover House, 15 Hanover Place. The cafe is on the corner of Hanover Place and Grove Alley, offering premium coffee and light fare, with a stylish interior and outdoor seating. This comes after Blank Street Coffee opened its largest café and second Downtown Brooklyn location at One Boerum Place.
• Discount grocer, Lidl, will open on May 23rd at 490 Fulton Street. The store is located on the second floor of the building in the former Raymour & Flanigan space.
• Mito, a modern Japanese restaurant, opened its doors this past quarter at the former Loreto Italian Kitchen space at 280 Ashland Place.
• Little Scholars, a childcare and daycare center, began operations in March at 345 Adams Street.
Le Cafe Coffee Opens at Hanover House (17 Hanover St)
• Hot Peppers Mexican Grill opened at 57 Willoughby Street, serving healthy, fast-casual Mexican food. Another quick-Mexican spot, Qdoba, has signed a lease at 210 Joralemon Street, with an entrance on Court Street.
There have been several new business announcements in the neighborhood, including:
• Two exciting new food and beverage tenants have signed at City Point: Van Leeuwen Ice Cream and Just Salad. Both will have storefronts facing Albee Square West, with the new Abolitionist Place credited as a key driver in their location considerations.
• Lele’s Roman will open late May at the As You Are as the Ace Hotel Brooklyn’s anchor restaurant. The new concept will offer Roman cuisine. A new record and audio equipment store, Finer Sounds, plans to open next to the restaurant.
• Two new quick-hibachi restaurants have signed leases. Quickway Japanese Hibachi is set to open at One Boerum Place this year. Teppanyaki One Japanese Grill will open another at 500 Fulton Street. This will be the second Teppanyaki One in the neighborhood after the recent opening at 86 Court Street.
Nike set to open at Atlantic Center
Photo Credit: Retail Week
RESIDENTIAL SALES
In the first quarter of 2025, the median sales price in Downtown Brooklyn was $1,130,829, an increase of about 1% year-over-year. The median asking price per sq. ft. was $1,406, a 4.7% decrease year-overyear.
• The median asking price per sq. ft. for 1-bedroom apartments in Downtown Brooklyn was $1,241 this quarter, which is 1.5% below last quarter, and about 7.5% less than Q1 2024.
• For 2-bedroom units, the median asking price per sq. ft. was $1,537, which is an 18% increase from last quarter and a 1% increase year-over-year.
Sales in Downtown Brooklyn were strong this quarter and bounced back from an abnormally low Q4, with a 1% year-over-year increase in median sale price. The 7.5% year-over-year decrease in asking prices for 1-bedroom apartments and the 1% year-over-year increase in 2-bedroom prices suggest a slight market demand shift towards 2-bedroom units.
Median Residential Sale Price Per Square Foot, Downtown Brooklyn
RESIDENTIAL RENTALS
The average residential rent in Downtown Brooklyn was $4,823 across all unit types in March 2025, a 1.3% increase year-over-year. Studios saw a modest 0.4% increase from last year, one-bedroom prices rose 1.4%, and two-bedroom units saw a 1.7% increase.
Downtown Brooklyn (1.3%), Dumbo (2%), Boerum Hill (8.6%), and Fort Greene (7%) experienced increased rents year-over-year while other neighborhoods saw their rents decrease. Cobble Hill (-4.4%) and Brooklyn Heights (-9.7%) declined compared to average rents in March 2024.
Source:
TRANSPORTATION
PARKS + PLAZA ACTIVITY (VIA MRI ONLOCATION)
Foot traffic in Downtown Brooklyn’s parks and plazas continue to show strong activity. Trends in March 2025 show:
• Abolitionist Place experienced between 2,500 and 6,000 daily pedestrians, seeing the most activity on Fridays. The park was most active around 4pm.
• Jay St + Brooklyn Commons saw average weekday visits between about 11,000 and 14,000 in March. Activity tended to peak at 1pm, with additional spikes in foot traffic at 8am and 5pm.
• Albee Square is experiencing between 9,000 and 13,000 pedestrians each day on average, with Fridays being the most active. Hourly foot traffic peaked around 5pm.
• Willoughby Plaza saw between 6,000 and 12,000 daily visitors a day, with Tuesdays being the busiest day of the week. The plaza was typically most active around 1pm.
• Daily visits to The Plaza at 300 Ashland were between 8,000 and 10,000 on average, with pedestrian activity peaking on Fridays. 5pm tended to be the busiest at the plaza in March.
Downtown Brooklyn Average Daily Foot Traffic by Location, March 2025
Downtown Brooklyn Average Foot Traffic by Location by Time of Day, March 2025
DEVELOPMENT
DEVELOPMENT OVERVIEW
As of Q1 2025, Downtown Brooklyn development includes:
• 154 projects completed since the 2004 rezoning, including 23,519 residential units (of which 4,848 are affordable), 2,777 million sq. ft. of office space and 2,482 million sq. ft. of retail.
• 19 projects under construction, including 5,379 residential units (1,349 of which are affordable) and 106,000 sq. ft. of retail.
• 23 projects planned, including at least 4,570 residential units (of which 1,098 will be affordable).
Recently Completed
151 South Elliott Place: Borough Developers’ 99-unit residential project has completed construction and is currently leasing out units.
Newly Announced Developments
• The Alloy Block Phase 2: Alloy Development recently announced the second phase of The Alloy Block. One Third Avenue will be a mixed-use tower rising above two historic buildings. It will include 538 residential units—152 of them affordable— along with six floors of office space above retail space along Third Avenue and Schermerhorn Street. The historic buildings will be restored for community-focused retail upon completion. The Alloy Block will be a sustainable development, comprising the tallest Passive House building in the world, with over 1,000 units, including 200 affordable units, 60,000 sq. ft. of office space, 50,000 sq. ft. of retail, and two energy-efficient schools.
• 395 Flatbush Ave Ext: A new 72-story mixeduse building including 1,262 dwelling units, approximately 141,280 square feet of commercial space, and 4,750 sq. ft. of open space is proposed at 395 Flatbush Ave by Rabina and Park Tower Group. The project, which would replace the 7-story office building built in 1972 on city owned land, is seeking ULURP to rezone the site from C6-4 to a C6-12 District to allow for additional FAR. ULURP certification is anticipated for August 2025. The city’s new City of Yes zoning changes are credited for making the proposed development possible.
One Third Avenue at the Alloy Block Source: Alloy Development
395 Flatbush Ave Source: Binyan Studio and TenBerke Architects
NEWS + UPDATES
L10 ARTS AND CULTURAL CENTER OPENS
L10 Arts and Cultural Center, a 65,000 square foot multidisciplinary hub, opened at 10 Lafayette Ave in Downtown Brooklyn on January 28th. The center hosts a vast range of cultural programs and activities and is operated by four local arts institutions. This includes:
• Brooklyn Public Library’s Library for Arts & Culture.
• A gallery and performance space for the Museum of African Diasporan Art (MoCADA).
• An archival space and cinemas by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).
• The first permanent space for 651 ARTS.
The new center is located at 300 Ashland, a 460,000 square foot mixed-use site that was developed by Two Trees that also features an Apple Store, Whole Foods, 379 rental units (including 76 affordable), and a public plaza.
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN IN THE NEWS
“A first look at L10 Arts and Cultural Center: the massive new cultural space that just opened in Brooklyn, NYC”
-TimeOut
“Brooklyn Hilton wraps up $5.5M upgrade”
-Brooklyn Eagle
“City, Rabina pitch replacing ‘eyesore’ office building with 1,200 apartments”
-Real Deal
“How Alloy Aims to Decarbonize Real Estate”
-Metropolis
“Discount grocery store Lidl is opening a new location in Brooklyn”
-Time Out
“ ‘At a Time Like This’: UrbanGlass exhibition inspires human connection in Downtown Brooklyn”
-Brooklyn Paper
“Brooklyn Charter Network to Open 150K-SF Downtown Brooklyn High School”
-Commercial Observer