Downtown Brooklyn is bursting with new housing options

New development in Downtown Brooklyn has reached a fever pitch.

The formerly 9-to-5 neighborhood is enjoying its biggest housing year ever. A record-breaking 3,700-plus units were completed there in the first six months of 2025, according to the most recent quarterly report from the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s real estate team.

The recent report, first covered by Crain’s New York, depict the neighborhood as a residential powerhouse more than two decades in the making. The 3,703 new housing units completed in the first half of the year — including 1,048 affordable units — shattered the previous record.

The last time Downtown Brooklyn built this much housing was three years ago, when 2,925 units were built in all of 2022.  

Appraiser Jonathan Miller, of Miller Samuel, said the area’s evolution benefited both the neighborhood and the real estate market.

“In many ways, this is a repeat of the Financial District in Manhattan, where the sidewalks rolled up at 5 o’clock at night,” Miller told The Post. “Downtown Brooklyn is going through the same phenomenon, converting from a commercial district with residential on the side to a significant residential neighborhood.”

Recently completed projects include the 1,098-unit Rocklyn at 20 Rockwell Place and the 569-unit Everly at 180 Ashland Place. Thanks to the unit boost, the neighborhood now ranks No. 1 in the borough for housing availability on Apartments.com, surpassing Park Slope and Williamsburg.

While the inventory boost is a blessing for Brooklyn’s especially limited housing stock, Miller added that the significant uptick in new development — generally more expensive than existing units — will end up pushing housing costs higher.

But as the saying goes, if you build it, they will come. Residential foot traffic skyrocketed this year, according data from Placer.ai, which revealed a nearly 97% boost above pre-pandemic levels. 

Commercial development progressed at a healthy tick, too. A Nike store arrived at Atlantic Center and a Lidl location joined the ranks of the neighborhood’s ample stock of large chain grocery stores.

The well-connected corridor has plenty to attract newcomers, like 12 subway lines, easy access to the Atlantic Terminal and a short walk to postcard-like city views from the Brooklyn Promenade.

It’s full steam ahead for Downtown Brooklyn — an additional 1,183 units slated to wrap up before 2026, according to the report, and there are thousands more to come next year. 

It appears that Downtown Brooklyn’s most aggressive building boom took place between April and the end of June. The 3,000-plus new units built this spring account for a whopping 12% of all 26,853 apartments added since the commercial neighborhood was rezoned in 2004. 

The 2004 rezoning effort sought to attract more office buildings, academic facilities and residential units with ground-floor retail to the area. Daily commuters to the borough’s civic center became full-time residents, and restaurants and retail rushed in to join them. The neighborhood even got its very own controversial supertall, and another second massive tower is currently in the works.