Downtown Brooklyn

A renter’s guide to Downtown Brooklyn

Abolitionist Place Park. Photo courtesy of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

April 6, 2026

A renter’s guide to Downtown Brooklyn

By Devin Gannon

Since being rezoned 20 years ago, Downtown Brooklyn has transformed into a dynamic mixed-use district, adding roughly 32 million square feet of new development in residential, commercial, cultural, academic, and open spaces. According to the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, since 2004, the area has seen over 27,000 housing units completed, with nearly 8,000 units under construction or in the pipeline. As one of the best transit-connected areas in New York City, along with its strong arts and cultural scene, Downtown Brooklyn is becoming a successful example of what a live-work-play neighborhood looks like. If you're looking to move to the neighborhood, we took a look at some of the best rental buildings to call home.
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NYC Guides

For $1.3M, easy living with a view in a Brooklyn high-rise condo

Photo credit: Grace Jeon at DD reps

March 30, 2026

For $1.3M, easy living with a view in a Brooklyn high-rise condo

By Michelle Cohen

High above the reborn residential neighborhood of Downtown Brooklyn, this two-bedroom corner apartment in The Nevins at 319 Schermerhorn Street has the sunlight and dazzling city views that you'd expect from high-rise life. Asking $1,275,000, the home's sleek, contemporary interiors and condo convenience mean stress-free living from day one.
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Distinctive Homes

24-story rental tower above historic Fort Greene church approved by Landmarks

144 Saint Felix, view looking up from the south. All images courtesy of FXCollaborative.

March 19, 2026

24-story rental tower above historic Fort Greene church approved by Landmarks

By Aaron Ginsburg

After revising their original proposal, developers won Landmarks Preservation Commission approval Tuesday to build an apartment building on top of a historic Fort Greene church. Developer Stretke, along with architects FXCollaborative and ADP Architects, got the green light for the project at 144 St. Felix Street, which will restore the facade of the landmarked Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church and construct a 24-story tower above it. The developers were asked to address concerns about the building’s height and massing, which the local community board and residents called “inappropriate” for the site and the surrounding Brooklyn Academy of Music Historic District. The revised proposal lowered the height by about 30 feet, from 27 stories to 24 stories.
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City Council approves 72-story Downtown Brooklyn tower with 1,200+ apartments

All renderings courtesy of Binyan Studio and TenBerke Architects

March 11, 2026

City Council approves 72-story Downtown Brooklyn tower with 1,200+ apartments

By Aaron Ginsburg

The New York City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to transform a Downtown Brooklyn office building into a massive mixed-use tower with over 1,200 new homes. The existing city-owned seven-story office tower at 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension will be replaced with a 72-story building, set to become the second-tallest building in the borough after The Brooklyn Tower. The project includes 1,263 new housing units, including 325 affordable apartments for households earning an average of 60 percent of the area median income (AMI).
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Shuttered Downtown Brooklyn Macy’s becomes pulsing light installation

Images courtesy of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership

January 30, 2026

Shuttered Downtown Brooklyn Macy’s becomes pulsing light installation

By Aaron Ginsburg

The shuttered Macy’s in Downtown Brooklyn now hosts an interactive light installation that pulses along to the soundtrack of Fulton Street. Unveiled on Friday, "In Every Transition, A Pattern" illuminates the windows of the former department store with rhythmic patterns and kaleidoscopic displays that respond to the energy of the streetscape. On view through March 16, the installation brings new life to the now-empty Macy's, which closed along with four other NYC locations in January 2025.
see it here

43-story Downtown Brooklyn rental opens lottery for 89 apartments, from $3,543/month

Images courtesy of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development

January 13, 2026

43-story Downtown Brooklyn rental opens lottery for 89 apartments, from $3,543/month

By Aaron Ginsburg

A striking new high-rise rental tower in Downtown Brooklyn designed with young professionals in mind has launched a housing lottery for 89 middle-income apartments. Rising 43 stories at 55 Willoughby Street, House 55 features sleek residential interiors and a suite of amenities tailored to a work-from-home lifestyle. New Yorkers earning 130 percent of the area median income can apply for the units, priced from $3,543/month studios to $4,518/month two bedrooms.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

The highest penthouse in Brooklyn’s tallest residence lists for $16.75M

All photos courtesy of Sean Hemmerle unless otherwise noted

December 18, 2025

The highest penthouse in Brooklyn’s tallest residence lists for $16.75M

By Michelle Cohen

Silverstein Properties has just unveiled Penthouse 92 at The Brooklyn Tower at 85 Fleet Street, the borough's tallest building and its only supertall. Listed for $16,750,000, the four-bedroom 92nd-floor condominium comprises the entire floor, a dizzying 1,000 feet above Downtown Brooklyn, with 360-degree New York City views.
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See plan for 27-story rental tower above historic Fort Greene church

Proposed view looking west. Credit: FXCollaborative

December 3, 2025

See plan for 27-story rental tower above historic Fort Greene church

By Aaron Ginsburg

A developer is looking to build an apartment tower on top of a historic Fort Greene church. Strekte presented a proposal to the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday for a 27-story tower above the landmarked Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church. During the hearing, the commission reviewed plans to restore the facade of the church at 144 St. Felix Street and perform demolitions necessary to construct a 27-story tower above it. After extensive public feedback, including concerns from neighboring One Hanson Place condo residents about blocked views, the LPC asked the development team to return at a later date once it had reviewed the points raised during the testimony.
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Developer’s plan for 30-story tower behind row of 19th-century homes in Downtown Brooklyn is stalled for now

The Duffield Street Houses at 182-188 Duffield Street. Photo by Epicgenius on Wikimedia

October 22, 2025

Developer’s plan for 30-story tower behind row of 19th-century homes in Downtown Brooklyn is stalled for now

By Aaron Ginsburg

A developer's plan to build a 30-story tower behind a row of landmarked homes in Downtown Brooklyn has been sent back to the drawing board. On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on Watermark Capital’s proposal for a glass and beige brick tower on a small lot behind the historic homes at 182-188 Duffield Street, four individual landmarks dating to the 1830s and 1840s. Commissioners and preservationists were skeptical of the proposal, which involves removing the rear facades of the four properties while combining the interiors to create a community space and a lobby for the 99-unit building behind them. The commission took no action on Tuesday and directed the developers to revise the design so it does not "overwhelm" the block's historic character.
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World’s tallest Passive House building in Brooklyn secures $535M in financing

All renderings courtesy of Alloy Development

August 27, 2025

World’s tallest Passive House building in Brooklyn secures $535M in financing

By Aaron Ginsburg

The future tallest Passive House building in the world is moving ahead in Downtown Brooklyn. Alloy Development and the Vistria Group on Tuesday announced the closing of $535 million in capital for the construction of One Third Avenue, a 730-foot mixed-use project with 583 apartments, retail, and office space. The tower is the final piece of the Alloy Block, a five-building complex that includes more than 1,000 homes, the city’s first all-electric skyscraper, and two Passive House public schools.
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Plan to build huge 72-story tower at 395 Flatbush Avenue enters public review

All renderings courtesy of Binyan Studio and TenBerke Architects

August 14, 2025

Plan to build huge 72-story tower at 395 Flatbush Avenue enters public review

By Aaron Ginsburg

The proposal to turn an outdated Downtown Brooklyn office building into a 72-story tower with over 1,000 apartments officially entered public review this week. Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday announced that 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension has begun the seven-month uniform land-use review procedure (ULURP). The tower would be the second-tallest in the borough after the Brooklyn Tower, and feature roughly 1,200 mixed-income residences, with at least 25 percent set aside as permanently affordable for households earning 60 percent of the area median income.
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Policy

31-story Downtown Brooklyn rental tower opens lottery for 120 apartments, from $784/month

Credit: NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development

August 13, 2025

31-story Downtown Brooklyn rental tower opens lottery for 120 apartments, from $784/month

By Aaron Ginsburg

Applications are now being accepted for 120 mixed-income apartments at a new 31-story rental tower in Downtown Brooklyn. Located at 202 Tillary Street, the property offers modern apartments with panoramic skyline views, complemented by a suite of upscale amenities. New Yorkers earning 40, 60, 110, and 120 percent of the area median income can apply for the units, with rents starting at $784/month for studios, $828/month for one-bedrooms, and $967/month for two-bedroom apartments.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

98 apartments available at all-electric Downtown Brooklyn tower, from $3,000/month

Renderings courtesy of RXR

July 14, 2025

98 apartments available at all-electric Downtown Brooklyn tower, from $3,000/month

By Aaron Ginsburg

An all-electric, 30-story residential tower in Downtown Brooklyn launched a housing lottery this week for 98 middle-income apartments. Located at 89 Dekalb Avenue, the sustainable development features a smart glass facade, thoughtfully designed residences, and academic and office space for Long Island University. New Yorkers earning 130 percent of the area median income can apply for the units, priced from $3,000/month studios to $4,376/month two bedrooms.
fIND OUT IF YOU QUALIFY

Affordable Housing

Brooklyn Tower relaunches sales, with studios from $965K

Photo credit: Evan Joseph

June 10, 2025

Brooklyn Tower relaunches sales, with studios from $965K

By Devin Gannon

Nearly a year after Silverstein Properties took control, Brooklyn Tower has relaunched sales, with a new marketing team and a new address. The supertall skyscraper at 85 Fleet Street (formerly 9 Dekalb Avenue) first launched sales in 2022 but struggled to make much headway, with just 23 of the 143 condos sold to date. Now, with Corcoran Sunshine leading sales efforts, listings at the tower are once again live, with condos priced from $965,000 for a studio.
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52-story Downtown Brooklyn rental opens lottery for 178 apartments, from $1,793/month

Renderings courtesy of NQS Creative

June 9, 2025

52-story Downtown Brooklyn rental opens lottery for 178 apartments, from $1,793/month

By Aaron Ginsburg

A housing lottery launched this week for 178 mixed-income apartments in a new residential tower in Downtown Brooklyn. Rising 52 stories at 589 Fulton Street, The Brook is one of the tallest buildings in the borough, offering apartments with views in every direction. New Yorkers earning 80 and 130 percent of the area median income can apply for the affordable units, priced from $1,793/month studios to $4,250/month two bedrooms.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

Artist Isolina Minjeong’s Downtown Brooklyn ground murals feel like ‘quiet blessings’

Images courtesy of DBP

June 3, 2025

Artist Isolina Minjeong’s Downtown Brooklyn ground murals feel like ‘quiet blessings’

By Aaron Ginsburg

Downtown Brooklyn just got brighter and safer, thanks to a colorful new public art installation. In the ground murals titled "Fear No Frontier," New York City-based artist Isolina Minjeong channels her Korean and Peruvian heritage with a bold design depicting powerful creatures, like tigers and dragons, a tribute to the resilience of New Yorkers. The vibrant piece measures roughly 10,700 square feet across the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Shared Streets and the area surrounding the Jay Street busway. Ahead, learn more about the murals and hear from Minjeong, who said she wanted the artwork to feel like "quiet blessings."
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Architecture And Design

New Fort Greene rental opens lottery for 49 apartments, from $1,869/month

570 Fulton Street sits next to the 42-story rental at 66 Rockwell Place. Photo © Ondel Hylton

May 27, 2025

New Fort Greene rental opens lottery for 49 apartments, from $1,869/month

By Aaron Ginsburg

A new residential tower on the border of Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene has launched an affordable housing lottery for 49 mixed-income apartments. Located at 570 Fulton Street, the 23-story building dubbed Fulton Greene offers modern units in a transit-rich and convenient neighborhood. New Yorkers earning 80 and 130 percent of the area median income can apply for the units, priced from $1,869/month for studios to $4,250/month for two bedrooms.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

72-story tower with 1,200 apartments proposed to replace Downtown Brooklyn ‘eyesore’

Rendering courtesy of Binyan Studio and TenBerke Architects

May 7, 2025

72-story tower with 1,200 apartments proposed to replace Downtown Brooklyn ‘eyesore’

By Aaron Ginsburg

New York City wants to redevelop an outdated office building in Downtown Brooklyn to make way for a 72-story mixed-use tower with over 1,000 units. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is looking to rezone the commercial building at 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension to allow for a new skyscraper with 1,263 apartments, as first reported by The Real Deal. The existing 350,000-square-foot building—a Verizon call center—was called "one of the biggest eyesores in Downtown Brooklyn" by Brownstoner for its homely architecture. The proposed tower will be the second-tallest in the borough, after The Brooklyn Tower.
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Policy

40-story Downtown Brooklyn tower opens lottery for 69 apartments, from $2,950/month

All renderings courtesy of Triangle Equities & The Michaels Organization

April 30, 2025

40-story Downtown Brooklyn tower opens lottery for 69 apartments, from $2,950/month

By Aaron Ginsburg

A new residential skyscraper in Downtown Brooklyn launched a housing lottery this week for 69 middle-income apartments. Located at 111 Willoughby Street, the 40-story Maxwell Downtown Brooklyn development offers impressive skyline views and amenities like a landscaped roof deck and top-floor lounge. New Yorkers earning 130 percent of the area median income can apply for the units, priced at $2,950/month studios, $3,300/month one-bedrooms, and $4,347/month two-bedrooms.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

Barclays Center announces second phase of $100M renovation

Renderings courtesy of BSE Global

April 7, 2025

Barclays Center announces second phase of $100M renovation

By Devin Gannon

The Barclays Center will undergo several upgrades enhancing the fan experience. BSE Global, parent company of the arena, the Brooklyn Nets, and the New York Liberty, announced last week that the second phase of a five-year, $100 million renovation will add a membership club and a fan zone with unobstructed views and a bar. The work will begin at the end of the Nets' current season and be completed ahead of the start of the 2025-2026 NBA season.
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Architecture And Design

The world’s tallest Passive House building is coming to Brooklyn

All renderings courtesy of Alloy Development

February 18, 2025

The world’s tallest Passive House building is coming to Brooklyn

By Devin Gannon

The world's tallest Passive House building, a design standard aimed at cutting carbon emissions, is coming to Brooklyn. Alloy Development on Tuesday unveiled One Third Avenue, a 63-story mixed-use tower with 583 apartments, retail, and office space. Designed to be highly efficient, the project will complete the Alloy Block, a $500 million five-building development in Downtown Brooklyn with over 1,000 homes, the city's first all-electric skyscraper, 60,000 square feet of office space, and two Passive House public schools.
details this way

Huge cultural hub with galleries, performance spaces, new library opens in Fort Greene

All photos by Gregg Richards, courtesy of Brooklyn Public Library

February 5, 2025

Huge cultural hub with galleries, performance spaces, new library opens in Fort Greene

By Aaron Ginsburg

Some of Brooklyn's most influential arts and cultural institutions have a new home in the heart of Fort Greene. L10 Arts and Cultural Center officially opened last week, bringing a 65,000-square-foot facility with gallery and performance spaces for the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts (MoCADA), cinemas for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), rehearsal studios and performance space for 651 Arts, and a new Brooklyn Public Library branch to 10 Lafayette Street. The center sits within the mixed-use tower 300 Ashland Place, which opened in 2017.
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Macy’s to close 5 NYC locations, including Downtown Brooklyn flagship

Streetview of 422 Fulton Street, Map data © 2022 Google

January 10, 2025

Macy’s to close 5 NYC locations, including Downtown Brooklyn flagship

By Aaron Ginsburg

Macy's on Thursday announced the closure of 66 stores across the country, including five locations in New York City. The closures are part of the department store chain's "Bold New Chapter" strategy, which includes closing roughly 150 underperforming stores by 2026. The announcement follows the sale of Macy's location at 422 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn last month for just $23 million, as first reported by the New York Post.
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Real Estate Trends

NYC’s first Passive House public schools open in Downtown Brooklyn

Credit: James Ewing / JBSA

November 21, 2024

NYC’s first Passive House public schools open in Downtown Brooklyn

By Aaron Ginsburg

New York City's first Passive House-certified public schools have opened in Downtown Brooklyn, setting the bar for sustainable education. Designed by Architecture Research Office (ARO), the ultra-low-energy-use building houses two schools: the Khalil Gibran International Academy, the nation’s first English-Arabic public high school, and the Elizabeth Jennings School for Bold Explorers (aka P.S. 456). Part of the mixed-use development Alloy Block, the facility consumes less than a third of the energy of a typical NYC public school.
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Architecture And Design

Celebrate 120 years of the NYC subway with a new exhibit and vintage train rides

60th Street Tunnel connection opening, 1955. New York Transit Museum NYCTA Photograph Unit Collection, 2005.48.270

September 16, 2024

Celebrate 120 years of the NYC subway with a new exhibit and vintage train rides

By Aaron Ginsburg

The New York Transit Museum is celebrating the 120th anniversary of the city's subway system with a new exhibit and vintage train rides. Debuting September 26, "The Subway Is..." explores how New York City's subway system has shaped its cultural identity and will showcase images and artifacts from the museum's collections. To coincide with the new exhibit, the museum is hosting four Inaugural Run Nostalgia Rides on vintage Lo-V subway cars from 1917, retracing the original route of NYC's first subway line.
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Silverstein takes control over Brooklyn Tower in $672M deal

Photo by Evan Joseph

July 2, 2024

Silverstein takes control over Brooklyn Tower in $672M deal

By Aaron Ginsburg

The real estate drama surrounding the Brooklyn Tower may be over. As first reported by Pincus Co, Silverstein Properties has taken over the tower's rental, retail, and unsold condo units from JDS Development in a $672 million deal. Silverstein had provided a $240 million loan for the tower, which JDS defaulted on in 2019, leading to a foreclosure auction scheduled for June 1. The auction was delayed and eventually avoided after Michael Stern of JDS transferred a preferred equity piece in the tower to Silverstein in order to restructure his debt, according to The Real Deal.
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Real Estate Trends

95 apartments available at luxury Downtown Brooklyn rental, from $3,317/month

All images courtesy of Fogarty Finger

June 26, 2024

95 apartments available at luxury Downtown Brooklyn rental, from $3,317/month

By Aaron Ginsburg

Applications are now being accepted for 95 middle-income units at a new luxury development in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn. Located at 15 Hanover Place, Hanover House is a 34-story mixed-use building with 314 apartments, ground-floor retail, and amenities like a landscaped rooftop, party room, and a gym. New Yorkers earning 130 percent of the area median income, or between $113,726 for a single person and $218,010 for a household of five, can apply for the apartments, priced at $3,317/month for a one-bedroom and $3,963/month for a two-bedroom.
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255 East 77th Street

Lenox Hill

Upper East Side condos with Central Park views

3 beds starting at $5,300,000
4 beds starting at $7,400,000
5 beds starting at $8,750,000