The New ‘Downtown’ Morgantown
You may have noticed, but the big warehouse at the corner of Bogart and Moore — between Ad Hoc gallery and Roberta’s — has been making a lot of noise lately, and filling up a couple dumpsters in the process. I hear that they will be three retail spaces, and one is already taken by a “photography studio/gallery/print shop.” The other two are “waiting for serious tenants.” Please be more food.
I have also heard that the empty lot on Moore now used to store junk cars and other industrial detritus — to the west of Roberta’s — could be recruited to host a possible farmer’s market. That is still very up in the air.
So let’s look at the landscape of this one block of Bogart. There’s a grocery store (which I hear now delivers, btw), a coffee and and DVD rental shop, a large gallery that hosts many events, three new storefronts coming on line, a bar around the corner one way, a wood-oven pizza place around the corner the other way, and one rumored farmer’s market next to that. This is shaping up to be a sort of Main Street for “Morgantown” and those of us in North Bushwick who use the Morgan stop area’s amenities as well as transportation (the Bogart entrance to the L is now open 24/7).
It looks like we’re hitting critical mass for a new retail boom. The Gentrometer bumps up a notch.
UPDATE: The three new storefronts will be a vegan bakery, a felafel joint, and a burrito spot.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
sweet. i’ve got more for you at the jefferson stop. this morning i talked to the owner of the 100′x100′ lot on the south side of wyckoff between wyckoff starr and the future- art/performance space next to NEK. he is going to be developing it for retail starting next month. at the standard 25′ per lot that is 4 spaces. he told me that he is excited to be bringing more services to the neighborhood, and he has a couple of prospective tenants. he mentioned a natural/organic grocery store, more restaurant space with a backyard, and a bar (a bar!). on the down side he also mentioned pilates. either way, north bushwick / wyckoff heights is fixin to get a lot more fancy!
February 15th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
thai thai thai! Preferably at one of the new wykoff spaces. I should go bug my favorite thai place, Amarin, and tell ‘em to get off their asses and into bushwick.
February 15th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Good job snooping that out kanoa! I’ve been saying forever they need to make that block a “main street.” Oh yes, people, it is coming together!
Matt, Armstrong has rumors of Thai on Knickerbocker. I’m gonna try to find out more.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
this is a really great addition to the community. bushwick is lacking in necessary amenities like grocery stores etc., i don’t think this is a sign of gentrification. now a new development would be a different story.
February 16th, 2008 at 12:46 am
Ah, I should read all the new posts before I post on the old topics eh?
OK, 214 Knickerbocker: Thai place is going in. Opening date and quality of the food remain to be seen. Definitely hungry for more info on this place…
On the left side of the tenant entrance to the bldg is the Thai place, storefront on the right side of said entrance, they appear to be renovating that space as well; although right now it looks like maybe they’re just re-opening the Ecuadorian place that was there.
We’ll see…
Jeremy, did u check out Chimu Express on Stanhope and Irving yet?
February 16th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Call me lazy, but that Morgantown stuff is too far for me..
I’m eagerly waiting for the half dozen or so empty storefronts on Knickerbocker between Suydam and Troutman to bust out with some cool shit!
February 16th, 2008 at 4:34 am
Thai food on Knickerbocker!! I never thought I’d live to see the day.
February 16th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Serious voids in the market all around Morgantown. Needs food, grocercy at first…. bars, brunch, etc…
branching out into anything… after we get fed, we get to define the hood.
February 16th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Oh that would be sweet. Even a poor to middling Thai place is better than another chinese takeout.
I wonder if it’s a new thai crew or a satelite for some fo the thai joints in w’burg. Either way, interesting news.
February 16th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
as I sent to jeremy:
dude, I think we’re gonna luck out. I walked past tonight, and there was a hipster asian couple, prolly in their 40’s, decorating the place in a (dare I say) non-bushwicky/very williamsburgy fashion: modernist wall sconces, decorative motifs on the ceiling, cool lighting… in short, the decorative scheme is… Armstrong approved!
it’s a small space, maybe room for 4 small tables or so. perhaps they’re counting on a big take-out business but they are clearly decorating it in order to draw in people off the street as well.
¡que interesante!
I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it. I’m about to lose control and I think I like it.
February 16th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
walked by today and the tables are in. Looks about ready to open. There was a help wanted add taped to the door - looking for wait staff. Also walked by the new performance space on wyckoff and there is a gong in the window. Strange. Also noticed a building application on troutman street for the lot near the corner. Housing of some sorts?
February 16th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I’d really like to see the corner of Central and Flushing turned into something besides whatever it is… I think it’s a plumbing supply place.
February 16th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
very very exciting! I love to hear this kind of news. Keep it coming.
February 17th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Actually, I hear the “performance space” guy doesn’t have any idea what he wants to do with the storefront. So that seems to still be up in the air.
February 18th, 2008 at 2:25 am
In a year our hood is going to have a lot going on. It usually explodes all at once.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Dresden, the place on Central and Flushing has been there for something like 40 years. The people there are extremely nice. Don’t talk so lightly of pushing out a totally legitimate business that’s been providing a great service to the neighborhood for such a long time. We need more than just restaurants around here and I’m sure if you needed a new radiator for example, you’d appreciate having a friendly place nearby that won’t rip you off.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:47 am
I agree. There are more than enough empty lots and empty retail spaces to be filled as things currently stand in Bushwick. There’s no need to push out established businesses.
February 18th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Besides, the Baierleins own that building. They’ll decide when they can make more money as a bar. Until then they will sell mauve bathroom sinks to all comers.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
It seems to me a plumbing supply store could use a less attractive and visible corner to operate out of… say, they could rent a garage…
A bar, on the other hand, could use that corner.
It was simple aesthetics. Ethically, I’ll speak lightly about whatever I want. It’s called the First Ammendment (the one above the Second Ammendment).
February 18th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I went and spoke with George at the plumbing supply store. Ok ok, but I’m going to go back and float the idea of him moving, and getting rent from a ground floor tenant. The space is really raw, but beautiful.
February 18th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Now that’s proactive!
February 18th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
We need plumbing supply stores… and we need good landlords like George… but we also need pool halls, bars, coffee shops, restaurants… and that iron column and facade is too nice for a plumbing supply store.
February 18th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
We need something like the Bedford Cheese Shop in a bad way.
February 18th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Oh and it should sell wine too.
February 19th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I have mixed feelings about that plumbing supply store: their hours are exactly the same as my work hours. Months ago my house was, err, “in dire need” of a plunger. The store was not yet open when I walked by to go to work, and closed by the time I returned home on the L. Luckily they are/were open on Saturday.
February 20th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Highest and best use - a term you hear a lot in real estate - would have it be a full liquor store.
A cheese shop? A 2500 SF cheese shop? Two blocks from the Bushwick Houses?
That would last about a minute.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I wasn’t talking about the plumber shop I meant somewhere in the nabe.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Dresden, I hope you’re in an industry where your predictive talents are used to their fullest.
Anyway even if bambina had meant that space, I don’t understand why you’re also assuming she knew it was 2500sqft. Frankly, the Bushwick Houses have fuck all to do with what businesses are established this side of Bushwick Avenue, since those people only come here occasionally to mug us, not to buy liquor or patronize any of the businesses on Flushing. Their presence “doesn’t matter” — a phrase you hear a lot in economics — because whether they are there or not has no bearing on what a viable business might be at Central and Flushing. Witness: Life Café.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
regarding the empty lot on troutman near wyckoff, it is going to be a warehouse and office for a restoration company that bought the lot in august. the blocks in that immediate area are zoned M1-1 which prohibits any new-construction lofts/condos/etc. there is a proposed zoning change at wyckoff and suydam that would allow residential construction.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Yeah, you’re right about the houses, but do you think our hood has enough people buying $20 a pound cheese to have a shop?
We need farmer’s market.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
A small shop selling wine, cheese, prosciutto, shit like that would do well — people are looking to buy EVERYTHING and right now we’re all going to Bedford and the city for it all. Look at some of the fancy stuff Brooklyn’s Natural carries regularly for an idea.
February 21st, 2008 at 11:56 pm
A decent cup of coffee close to Morgan L stop would be great. I mean, they say Gimme Coffee, and I see the Gimme Coffee bags… but they’re making it like shit or using other beans.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:59 pm
A small shop selling wine and cheese would be great except that there’s a stupid law in New York that makes it illegal. Liquor stores can’t sell cranjerry juice to mix with your vodkas, wine stores can’t sell cheese to go with their wines, food markets like Brooklyn’s Natural can’t sell wine to go with their proscuitto. And the consequence for us in Bushwick is: We have to buy wine from ghetto liquor stores surrounded by bullet-proof glass. Nice one - thanks all round to the political class for that!
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
news splash on the wyckoff retail
racked
curbed
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I think you can sell “New York” only wines and get away with a lot more. There’s a store on Broome Street, Vintage New York. I know the operator and will ask what she thinks of our area:
Vintage New York are the only stores in New York that can create gift baskets of wine and food together. We have hundreds of wines from dozens of New York wineries, along with local artisanal cheeses, patés and other foods– all made in New York– and a wide assortment of unique wine lifestyle accessories.
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
That’s pretty interesting - I didn’t know there was a loophole in the law. Anyway, we definitely need some artisanal stores, lets hope we get some!
February 25th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Someone should really branch out over on Central Ave between Bleecker St all the way up pass Grove St. There are a lot of empty store fronts that can use a taste of Williamsburg. Not to mention the J, M and Z train are two blocks away.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Nelson, I pretty much can’t think of a less likely place for a “taste of Williamsburg” to open. All of Bushwick’s projects are within two blocks.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
are there a lot of vacant spots over there on central by bleeker?
February 25th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
This area can sure use a make over. Yes there are few vacant spots.