Gentrification Has Arrived in Sunset Park

There goes another neighborhood. Sunset Park, Brooklyn, the unassuming enclave that gave birth to the housing cooperative movement a century ago, has officially joined the ever-growing ranks of New York City’s gentrification hot spots.

A once-humble, 2,800-square-foot townhouse at 439 36th Street has undergone an extensive renovation and was recently sold for a neighborhood record of $2.05 million, DNAinfo reports. It’s the first in what real-estate insiders expect to be a rising tide of high-dollar sales in the area.

Forces contributing to the coming tsunami of gentrification are sky-high prices in Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn, coupled with the resurgence of nearby Industry City, the waterfront complex that continues attracting creative-sector jobs while the de Blasio administration recently announced $136 million plans to renovate two buildings at the nearby Bush Terminal for a fashion, film and food-manufacturing campus. The recently renovated Bush Terminal Park has become a hotspot for families — and birders — and national chains such as Saks Off Fifth and Bed, Bath & Beyond are now in the area.

The $2 million townhouse at 439 36th Street hits “all of the high notes of Brooklyn rustic-luxe chic,” according to DNAinfo, including wood beams, exposed brick, and reclaimed wood throughout the house, along with high-end appliances. It’s likely to get a lot of company in the near future. "I think it's going to start a new wave of luxury property in Sunset Park," says the listing’s broker, Abigail Palanca of Compass, adding that four nearby townhouses are expected to hit the market this summer in the $2 million range.

Not everyone is thrilled. New development might put even more strain on the area's overcrowded schools, and rising real estate prices will likely do what they always do: force out existing residents. Says Andrew Hausermann, director of organizing with the activist group Faith in New York, “There are huge displacement concerns."