Street Level....Atlantic Avenue

n the late 1970s, Atlantic Avenue, from Flatbush to the East River, was nicknamed “SoBro” short for South Brooklyn (a real estate ploy cashing in on the cachet of the “SoHo” branding). And like its Manhattan counterpart, young artists and new art galleries started flocking to Atlantic Avenue. Perhaps SoBro could have been a contender, but the name didn’t stick. The street slumped, leaving many storefronts empty.

Here’s a quick timeline of boom and bust at work on Atlantic since the 1970s:
First annual Atlantic Avenue street fair took place 1975.
Senator Walter F. Mondale made Atlantic Avenue a campaign stop as the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential candidate 1976.
The Ex Lax building, constructed in 1925 to house the offices and factory producing the popular chocolate-flavored laxative, closed in 1975 when the General Cigar Corporation bought the company. In 1981, the building was converted into 59 flats, a record for Brooklyn. At street level, the building incorporates an office supply store and a carpet dealer, and it is this mix of living and working that is reshaping the avenue this time.
In 1982 the possibility of building a baseball stadium at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues raised hopes; it was the pet project of then State Senator Thomas J. Bartosiewicz, longtime Brooklyn resident. The intersection has drawn many proposals through the years, but this was perhaps the most extravagant, and the most spirit raising and deflating, recalling for Brooklyn residents a time of their beloved baseball past when the Dodgers played at Ebbits field. The New York State Legislature earmarked $30,000 to explore the idea, but the site was passed up as it had been passed up once before the Dodgers left in the 1950s. The imagined economic windfall that comes with close proximity to a major sporting venue never came.
In 1984, the city announced plans for the $500 million Atlantic Terminal/Brooklyn Center with millions of square feet of office space and 600 housing units—the mall was not completed until the early 1990s. In 1986, seeing opportunity in 87 acres of underdeveloped property running along the East River between Atlantic Avenue and the Brooklyn Bridge, rumors of a research institute for world trade, hotels, housing and office space began to attract the attention of merchants whose commercial interest center around the avenue. However, there is no proposed Promenade Complex; no trade research is being done at the eastern edge of Atlantic Avenue these days.

Current U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that Atlantic Avenue tenants are young; 59.7 percent of housing units are occupied by residents less than 44 years old, 35.7 percent of which are under 34.
Smith Street may enliven Atlantic Avenue from the center outward if plans for the new Brooklyn Central YMCA facility at the southwest corner of Smith Street and Atlantic Avenue are completed. The building is proposed to tower eight stories above Atlantic Avenue; it would house a glass-roofed swimming pool, a fitness center, condominium apartments, office space and ground floor retail space

president of the AABA, says the organization is working to attract businesses that keep later hours, such as restaurants and bars, to benefit both consumers and residents with a more diverse commercial district, as well as by brightening up the avenue at night. “After 7 p.m., why come?” Skyler asks, noting that Atlantic Avenue’s darkened storefronts have an ominous feel after hours. “That’s what we’re trying to change — the perception.” To encourage business owners in the area to embrace the developing nightlife along Atlantic Avenue, the betterment association has initiated First Thursdays, an event that asks participating businesses to stay open later on the first Thursday of every month. The hope is that customers will come to the new bars and restaurants that have opened and see fewer closed, dark storefronts along the way, though the AABAs focus on creating an evening scene on Atlantic Avenue is not endorsed by all as a panacea.