8 Brooklyn Neighborhoods You Won't Be Able to Recognize in 5 Years

Eight Brooklyn neighborhoods you won't be able to recognize in five years because of new development.

Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

In past decades, Brooklyn has been mocked by Manhattanites, celebrated by residents, and known as some place the Beastie Boys sang about to everyone else, but in recent years the borough has moved from cultural curiosity to development hot-spot. While there are both positive and negative aspects to the borough's gentrification (just ask Spike Lee), watching it happen has been a mind-blowing experience on a purely visual level. As a non-native Brooklynite myself, I've watched high-rises rise, a stadium get built, and Williamsburg become a hipster Disneyland all in a few year's time. To take a look at the next wave of changes to Brooklyn's skyline, City Guide asked photographer Liz Barclay to capture eight evolving areas before new construction alters them forever. Included next to the images are thumbnails that show renderings of what's to come in the future. Check these neighborhoods out now, because in five years time, you won't be able to recognize them.

Greenpoint

Project: Greenpoint Landing
Location: 21 Commercial St., 33 Eagle St., 77-87 Commercial St.
Status: Planning stages

Greenpoint may be known for Girls, Polish food, and the G train, but it's quickly becoming a seamless extension of Williamsburg's high-class hipster landscape. Case in point: Greenpoint Landing—a huge new waterfront project from Park Tower Group. The new development will feature giant residential towers at 77-87 Commercial Street, and green park space along the water. The massive redevelopment project also includes a new public school and 1,400 affordable housing units.

East Williamsburg

Project: Brooklyn Classic
Location: 319 Frost St.
Status: Planning stages

East Williamsburg may be a real estate term for what is essentially Bushwick, but that hasn't stopped the neighborhood from shifting from sketchy industrial zone to coveted hipster hangout. That transformation will be even more apparent when concert conglomerate Bowery Presents opens a new 2,000 person capacity venue at 319 Frost St. The warehouse-style space, to be called Brooklyn Classic, will occupy a former red-brick factory.

Downtown Brooklyn

Project: Various projects
Location: 386 Flatbus Ave. Extension, 286 Ashland Pl.
Status: Planning stages

With Barclays Center paving the way down the road, Downtown Brooklyn is set to see sweeping changes over the next few years. Among them is a new tower set to be erected on the site of Brooklyn's famed Junior's Cheesecake, the 32-story Bam South Tower, and various other residential towers. The Fulton Mall is also set for revitalization, with new stores like H&M and Gap already pushing out the bodegas and budget clothing stores.

Red Hook

Project: New York Dock Building
Location: 160 Imlay St.
Status: Under construction

Red Hook's New York Dock Building is a massive waterfront space set to be transformed into apartments and artist studios by developer Est4te Four. “We want to mix the world of fashion, art, music,” Massimiliano Senise, a partner at the firm, told DNAinfo. The new space, designed by AA Studio, will include 70 units and is being described as "affordable." Spaces will reportedly start at $500 thousand and go up from there.

Prospect Heights

Project: Atlantic Yards
Location: 800 Pacific St.
Status: Under construction

Barclays Center may be finished, but the collection of towers surrounding the new stadium at Atlantic Yards is just getting started. While there have been many changes to the project's original design over the years, the construction of a handful of gigantic residential towers is already underway. While it's unclear exactly when or in what form all 16 originally-planned skyscrapers are going to see completion, Prospect Heights will certainly see sweeping changes over the next few years.

Williamsburg Waterfront

Project: Domino Sugar Factory
Location: 316 Kent Ave.
Status: Approved by City Council

Developer Two Trees finally recieved approval for its massive redesign of the Domino Sugar Factory, which will total 2.28-million square feet. The city made an exception to its normal building size regulations, allowing a 55-story tower to accommodate the structure's 2,300 apartments. While there was some controversy regarding the amount of affordable housing, the agreed-upon 700 affordable units have been seen as a victory both for Two Trees and the de Blasio administration alike.

Brooklyn Navy Yard

Project: Various
Location: 63 Flushing Ave.
Status: Various stages of development

At its height during the second World War, the Brooklyn Navy Yard employed 70,000 people working 24 hours a day. For the past several decades, however, those numbers have shrunk drastically and many buildings sit derelict and unused. Things are about to change, however, with massive redevelopment plan that hopes to turn the shipyard into a new center for technology and industry. Admirals Row, Building 77, and Building 128 are all seeing huge new projects, while the Steiner Media Campus addition to Steiner Studio—an ultra modern new complex—is supposed to bring 2,500 new tech-centric jobs to the area. The U.S. military may no longer have a use for the area, but the next few years are going to see a new boom for Brooklyn's most underutilized waterfront.

Gowanus

Project: Whole Foods
Location: 214 3rd St.
Status: Complete

While earlier slides featured projects in various stages of planning and construction, Gowanus is an example of an (almost) fully finished project. After years of protracted development, millions upon millions of dollars, and complicated deals to clean up the area's toxic waste and restore the Coignet Building, Whole Foods is open for business. In its completed state, with an urban farm on its roof, the monolithic grocer is the physical embodiment of gentrification. If you want proof that neighborhoods can transform overnight, here it is.