Downtown Brooklyn

Downtown Brooklyn is the borough’s civic and commercial centre: courts and government offices, the MetroTech campus, Fulton Mall’s shopping streets and a growing residential skyline. Barclays Center and BAM’s cultural district are a short walk away.

Downtown Brooklyn grew up around the mid-nineteenth-century Borough Hall, a Greek Revival building that still anchors the civic district. For more than a century the area was the shopping and office centre of the independent City of Brooklyn, and it kept that role after the 1898 merger. Today courts, city agencies, universities and tech and media offices share the streets with department stores, chain shops and a fast-growing stock of residential towers.

Education is a big part of the neighbourhood. The MetroTech campus hosts the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, while New York City College of Technology (CUNY), Brooklyn Law School and Long Island University Brooklyn are all within a short walk. Between classes and office hours, the area fills with students and workers looking for lunch, coffee and a quiet place to work, which is why independent cafés and food halls keep opening here.

Transport is the neighbourhood’s great advantage. Jay Street–MetroTech, Borough Hall and Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center are three of the best-connected subway stations in the borough, between them serving most of the lines that run through Brooklyn, and the Long Island Rail Road’s Atlantic Terminal sits beside Barclays Center. Many residents live here without owning a car, and the streets of Fort Greene, Boerum Hill and Brooklyn Heights are a short walk away.

If you plan to live or open a business in Downtown Brooklyn, expect a mix of new glass buildings, older commercial blocks and a busy street life that changes by the hour. Visit on a weekday and on a weekend evening before committing, ask about noise and construction nearby, and compare rents with the surrounding neighbourhoods. For events, check the calendars of Barclays Center and BAM, which both draw large crowds.