April 22, 2026
Brooklyn's mixed-use market in 2025 was driven as much by corridor-level momentum as it was by borough-wide trends. While Downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg grabbed the headlines, Myrtle Avenue, Bushwick, and the neighborhoods around them quietly put up some of the most interesting data of any submarket in the city. Here is what property owners along these corridors need to know.
Myrtle Avenue: The Corridor That Keeps Proving Itself
Myrtle Avenue is one of Brooklyn's most underappreciated commercial corridors. It runs through Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, Ridgewood (crossing into Queens), and serves as the spine of several neighborhoods that have each been on sustained appreciation trajectories for a decade.
In Fort Greene specifically, the mixed-use development activity along Myrtle Avenue has been meaningful. A mixed-use project at 373-375 Myrtle Avenue added 80 rental units to the neighborhood, and new developments along the corridor are commanding $1,400 to $1,600 per square foot, pulling neighborhood averages upward. Fort Greene has logged a compound annual growth rate of 7.2% over five years, outpacing Brooklyn's borough-wide 5.8% average per DeFalco Realty's 2025 Fort Greene market report.
The spillover from Pacific Park near Barclays Center continues to benefit Fort Greene and Clinton Hill properties along and near Myrtle. As that development matures, the demand for retail and mixed-use space in the surrounding blocks grows with it.
Further east, where Myrtle Avenue extends toward Ridgewood and brushes the Brooklyn-Queens border, the story shifts slightly. Matthews' Queens 2025 mixed-use report flagged Ridgewood as one of the top-performing markets in New York City, with rents rising 6.68% year over year and increased development interest along Myrtle and Wyckoff avenues. The Whole Foods arrival on Myrtle Avenue was not just a retail story. It was a signal to institutional investors and individual buyers alike that the corridor had crossed a threshold. Neighborhoods that attract national anchor tenants tend to see accelerated appreciation in surrounding properties. That effect is already showing up in the data.
Bushwick: Institutional Capital Is Paying Attention
Bushwick's real estate market in 2025 was a story of institutional momentum meeting neighborhood character. According to Redfin data cited by Mendy Realty, the median sale price in Bushwick rose to $1.16 million by July 2025, a 28.2% jump year over year. That is not a rounding error. That is a neighborhood in transition.
The transactions driving that number include serious institutional plays. The acquisition of 242 Seigel Street for a film and TV studio conversion, the $15.45 million Ulmer Brewery redevelopment at 81 Beaver Street into a mixed-use property with 34 apartments and commercial space, and the ongoing Wyckoff Avenue corridor reconstruction by NYC DDC are all pointing in the same direction. Bushwick is being repositioned from a lower-cost alternative to Williamsburg into a legitimate destination market with its own identity.
For owners of mixed-use buildings along Bushwick Avenue, Knickerbocker Avenue, and the side streets connecting to the J/M/Z and L trains, this institutional activity creates both opportunity and urgency. When developers start paying $15M to redevelop a single site in your neighborhood, the baseline for what your property is worth shifts.
Per TerraCRG's 2025 Brooklyn report covered by Crain's, North-Central Brooklyn, the bucket that includes Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and Crown Heights, led the entire borough by number of commercial transactions in 2025 with 259 deals. Volume at that level in a submarket reflects not a speculative burst but sustained, broad-based demand.
The Atlantic Avenue Rezoning and Its Ripple Effects
One policy development that mixed-use owners in central and North Brooklyn need to understand is the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan, approved by the City Council in May 2025. The plan enables approximately 4,600 apartments and 800,000 square feet of commercial space along 21 blocks from Vanderbilt Avenue to Nostrand Avenue, replacing outdated manufacturing zoning with mixed-use districts that allow buildings up to 185 feet.
That rezoning does not just affect properties directly on Atlantic Avenue. It affects the desirability and value of every mixed-use building within walking distance of that corridor in Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, and Bed-Stuy. The $235 million in committed public investment, including the full redesign of Atlantic Avenue, is the kind of infrastructure commitment that takes a neighborhood from "emerging" to "arrived" over a five to seven year horizon.
What 2026 Looks Like for These Corridors
Brooklyn's total commercial deal volume in 2025 tracked at roughly 1,191 transactions, in line with the borough's 10-year average, which means the market is not frothy or distorted. It is functioning. Buyers are active, pricing has adjusted to the rate environment, and well-positioned assets are moving.
Retail asking rents rose or held steady in 10 of 16 Brooklyn corridors surveyed by REBNY in 2025, with declining concessions in prime corridors as market conditions tighten. For mixed-use owners whose buildings include ground-floor retail, that means your commercial income component is likely more defensible in 2026 than it would have appeared two years ago.
The owners who will benefit most from 2026's Brooklyn mixed-use market are the ones who understand their asset's position in the context of these corridor-level trends. A mixed-use building on Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood is not just a Brooklyn property. It is a property on one of the most active appreciation corridors in the metro area. A mixed-use building in Bushwick is not just an income property. It is a piece of a neighborhood being discovered by institutional capital in real time.
If you have been sitting on a mixed-use asset in any of these neighborhoods and have not had a current market conversation, 2026 is the year to have it.
Disclaimer: This content is meant for informational purposes only and is not intended to be construed as financial, tax, legal, or insurance advice.
