A Look At Bushwick's New Center Of Gravity

Last month, All Year Management revealed its plans for the much-buzzed-about former Rheingold Brewery site in Bushwick. The realization of those plans promises to be a major event in Bushwick’s rapid evolution.

The area along Flushing Avenue within a couple of blocks on either side has been in motion recently as a budding office district, with a slew of conversions like Savanna and Hornig Capital Partners' 95 Evergreen, and at least one office ground-up project on the way.

But All Year’s 1M SF Bushwick II and the Rabsky Group’s 400k SF residential development, both on the former Rheingold site, represent the neighborhood’s first truly massive multifamily development in its recent history.

“I think the project was already a game-changer over the last few years,” says Terra CRG’s Matt Cosentino, whose assigned territory is Bushwick.

“Just the anticipation of it had a big impact on pricing in the area,” adds Matt, who recently brokered the sale of 125-127 Evergreen St, two adjoining residential buildings in the neighborhood, for $2.65M.

He tells us the coming Rheingold project was a difference-maker in making that sale happen, and that was before the development’s magnitude was even known.

“When you have such a big site that’s controlled by a single developer or two developers, by itself that presents a rare opportunity,” says ODA’s Eran Chen, whose team designed Bushwick II as well as the Rabsky Group's neighboring project. 

“Instead of filling it with typologies of buildings that we’ve seen time and time again, we can create something unique that really belongs in Bushwick,” Eran says. “I feel it will be a really important point in Bushwick’s history.”

Part of what the project belonging in Bushwick will mean, Eran says, is that it aims to bring together a diversity of uses and people, with a series of outdoor courtyards as the main venue for things like concerts, farmers markets and other public events intended not just for residents but anyone from the neighborhood and beyond.

Eran tells us the project is aiming to strike a balance that brings amenities and, as he emphasized, a gathering spot for Bushwick’s existing residents to mingle with artists and entrepreneurs—without further displacing people and businesses that have called the area home.

He sums it up this way: “The greatest challenge in gentrification in general is that it pushes away existing communities.”

On the residential side, the project aims to do this by setting aside 20% of the units as affordable.

On the retail and light manufacturing side, Eran didn’t disclose details, but he said there are plans to lease to tenants like breweries that have been priced out of the neighborhood or are considering leaving. Makes sense, considering the site's history.

It’s not as if those kind of mixed-use districts have no basis in Brooklyn. Increasingly, office projects like Heritage Equities’ 25 Kent and Industry City are incorporating a light manufacturing component to go with their office space.

But as the area continues to change—by all accounts, change that will be accelerated by what’s happening at the Rheingold site—Eran’s take is that the city should be more thoughtful when it rezones new areas, to allow for a wider mix of uses like industrial, along with increasing allowable residential space.

And at the street level, Eran says, creating a vibrant scene can go a long way in bringing out a vibrant and diverse community.

“We believe that we don’t need to bury people indoors or in their lounge," he says, "but instead open things up to much more friendly open space.”