New York real estate: Flatbush

By Lana Bortolot | Special to amNewYork

May 8, 2008

Fresh and Kosher food on Coney Island Avenue. (Katya Pronin / May 7, 2008)

Good luck trying to get a straight answer on where Flatbush is. Encompassing 11 neighborhood associations, all of which can claim some stake in this emerging community, the boundaries are amorphous--something in which local civic leaders seem to take pride, given the great diversity that exists here.

"The real issue is what's in the mind of residents," says Alvin Berk, a lifelong resident and chairman of Flatbush's Community Board 14. "The boundaries expand and contract in the minds of residents. It's a state of mind."

Robin Redmond, Flatbush Development Corporation's executive director, agrees.

"Technically, people who don't live in Flatbush feel like they do. It just doesn't matter what you call this place; there's intense neighborhood pride here," she says. "It's not just about their block now, it's about their community."

Bolstered by capital improvements, grassroots community groups, and renewed interest in formerly forlorn commercial strips, Flatbush seems poised for discovery by the masses.

"People have heard it's up and coming and they're priced out of other neighborhoods," says Jan Rosenberg, a principal in Brooklyn Hearth Realty. "We're seeing young professionals and families, a lot of creative types [moving in]."

Flatbush's diverse and architecturally significant housing stock--a mix of Victorian houses and stately apartment buildings--is one magnet. Another is its small-town feeling: tree-lined streets, wide porches, manicured lawns. And all this fewer than seven miles from Manhattan.

"You get a lot more in terms of a tranquil life here rather than Park Slope, Fort Greene and Carroll Gardens," says Julie Kestyn, of Kestyn Real Estate. "In other parts of Brooklyn, prices are dropping, but not here. The houses here are spectacular, but there's a very low turnover for them."

While most of the recent attention has focused on the historic neighborhoods around Ditmas Park, other areas of Flatbush are thriving and on the radar for capital improvements.

One of several humming commercial strips that reflect the rich diversity of the neighborhood, Flatbush Avenue is lined with businesses catering to Dominican, Spanish, West Indian, Jamaican and Haitian populations (as well as blocks-long stretches of Pentecostal storefront churches). Indian, Pakistani and Afghan restaurants and markets occupy blocks of Coney Island Avenue. Target will be the anchor tenant in a new mall at Brooklyn Junction. And the long-closed historic Loews' King Theater, a 1929 Art Deco movie palace ( Barbra Streisand worked the doors here as a teenager) may get a renovation.

All eyes are on the Newkirk Plaza area, one of America's oldest pedestrian shopping malls, spruced up with decorative pavement and fencing, lighting and planters. The French bistro, Pomme de Terre, recently planted a stake near here, signaling to the rest of Flatbush that Newkirk is ready for its photo opp.

"Flatbush is like the starlet who's an overnight success after 30 years of hard work," says Kestyn. "It's taken a while to get discovered."

THE BUZZ

Cortelyou Road, a seven-block long strip has been infused with a number of locally owned upscale restaurants and retail, making this Flatbush's hot destination. Local real estate agent Jan Rosenberg was a founder of the Friends of Cortelyou, a grassroots effort that over six years recruited new businesses to co-exist along side the long-time storefronts.

"This was a wonderful place to live, but we had no central community," Rosenberg said. "We didn't have what makes an urban neighborhood exciting--the organic criss-crossing of people in public places."

Cortelyou Road, a seven-block-long strip has been infused with a number of locally owned upscale restaurants and retail, making this Flatbush's hot destination. Local real estate agent Jan Rosenberg was a founder of the Friends of Cortelyou, a grassroots effort that over six years recruited new businesses to co-exist along side the long-time storefronts.

"This was a wonderful place to live, but we had no central community," Rosenberg said. "We didn't have what makes an urban neighborhood exciting--the organic criss-crossing of people in public places."

Now, thanks to the group's successful campaign, people can eat in Manhattan-style restaurants (without the attitude or prices), shop for home furnishings and patronize the local barber who's been in the same spot for 100 years. Socially conscious parents can buy kid-powered toys for their kids and step up or down the street to either of two organic food stores.

The merchants feel the difference, too. Cole Chilton of T.B. Ackerson Wine Merchants says, "In Park Slope, they have people who manage. Here, it feels like we have people who create."

Says Rosenberg: "You're looking at Flatbush at the best time in the 25 years I've lived here."