According to the U.S. Census Bureau via Point2Homes, as of 2023 the median household income in Windsor Terrace was $141,616; in Kensington, it was $83,696. For households led by people ages 25 to 44, that number rises in Kensington to $102,720.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, while exact figures aren\u2019t available, over the past decade or so the area has become home to many people priced out of nearby neighborhoods such as Park Slope, Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill, areas where one-bedroom apartments rent for $3,500 to $5,000 per month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The area, then, might not be the height of luxury \u2014 although new developments with rooftop social spaces, fitness centers and prices to match are beginning to spring up \u2014 yet the Windsor Terrace\/Kensington border is clearly an area whose residents possess enough disposable income to support worthwhile local gathering places.<\/p>\n
And, yet, announcements of exciting new bars, eateries, social hot spots or other leisure-based shopping experiences are virtually nonexistent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An undated report from the City University of New York\u2019s School of Professional Studies titled Gentrification and Social Shift in Kensington, Brooklyn<\/a> spells out what seems a perpetual observation about the area of late.<\/p>\n The paper notes that Church Avenue was considered \u201cone-stop shopping\u201d for much of the 20th century, driven by family- But the report then focuses on the area\u2019s more recent inability to respond to changing times with retail that meets the moment.<\/p>\n \u201cNewer residents often complain about the lack of amenities in the neighborhood,\u201d reads the report. \u201cThere are a few chain stores (e.g. Rite Aid, Walgreens, ShopRite, etc.), but everything is mostly independently owned. There have been a slew of shops that have opened and closed within months because they could not garner enough business to stay open. The high rents for commercial space often are the culprit. The other problem is the lack of patronage of said shops. While there are a few restaurants, many people often complain of \u2018nicer\u2019 restaurants not being open here, along with coffee shops and bookstores.\u201d (The Rite Aid has since closed due to the corporation\u2019s bankruptcy.)<\/p>\n All of which leads to the question: What exactly does it take to get a neighborhood filled with residents with disposable income the types of retail that are worth their time and money?<\/p>\n Richard Skulnik, vice chairman and partner at brokerage Ripco Real Estate, noted that the area\u2019s proximity to upscale Park Slope \u2014 which has a median household income of $174,364 \u2014 might be a disadvantage in attracting new retail.<\/p>\n \u201cPowerhouse neighborhoods that are adjacent can suck all the oxygen out of the room, because that\u2019s where all the retailers look,\u201d said Skulnik. \u201cNobody wants to venture outside of those neighborhoods.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Skulnik noted that areas with strong retail corridors, like Park Slope\u2019s Fifth and Seventh avenues, can dominate retail demand, leaving nearby areas in a sort of middle-income bubble.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn Manhattan, the Upper East Side is a fabulous residential market,\u201d said Skulnik. \u201cThe further you go north and east, the less likely you are to have national tenants looking in those markets.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of the issue for areas starved for worthy retail is that this absence is self-perpetuating, as retailers seek to be clustered amid similar retailers.<\/p>\n \u201cIn an urban setting or even in malls or shopping centers, the most important word for retailers is \u2018co-tenancy,\u2019 meaning that retailers want to be where their friends are,\u201d said Brandon Singer, CEO of brokerage Retail by MONA<\/a>. \u201cWhen I first got into the business 20 years ago, I didn\u2019t understand why Gucci wanted to open up next to Louis Vuitton \u2014 like, why would you want to be next to your competition? What you wind up realizing is that [they\u2019re appealing to] the same customer. Because of that, when you apply that same logic to other categories of retail, the same thing holds true. Brands want to be near their competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n Ariel Schuster, vice chairman at Newmark<\/a>, sees co-tenancy as the No. 1 factor for New York retailers in deciding on a location.<\/p>\n \u201cApparel tenants are not pioneers, and they often say that to us out loud,\u201d said Schuster. \u201cThey\u2019re looking to see where there\u2019s a density of similar-type brands. That\u2019s how neighborhoods get developed.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of the equation for new retail also has to do with zoning, with some residential high-rise buildings required to include ground-floor retail while others are not.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Kensington and Windsor Terrace, for example, few residential buildings have retail on the ground floor. In Gowanus, where new residential product is going up en masse<\/a>, that requirement exists, according to Justin Pelsinger, partner and chief operating officer at Charney Companies. Charney has developed, or is currently developing, mixed-use buildings in the area such as 175 Third Street, Nevins Landing North and South, Douglass Port and Union Channel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn Gowanus, the zoning requires retail on the ground floor of all these new buildings,\u201d said Pelsinger. \u201cThat was a very specific mandate made when they were passing the rezoning because they understood the need for activation on the streetscape, and they didn\u2019t want to leave it to the private sector to determine how much they wanted to do or not.\u201d<\/p>\n Sam Sparks is a partner at Tavros<\/a>, which is working with Charney on several of these developments, including the Nevins and Douglass projects. Sparks said that the enormity of these new developments and others, which are bringing around 9,000 residential units to the area over a relatively short period of time, helped compensate for any shortage of current co-tenants in the eyes of new potential retailers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe addition of all these new homes creates a lot of new need,\u201d said Sparks. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lot of lifestyle, service, and food and beverage, particularly from local users. It\u2019s a lot of people who are already in business in Park Slope or Carroll Gardens nearby. They were some of the first to recognize what was happening in Gowanus, what the opportunity was, and ultimately what the neighborhood\u2019s going to be.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n TF Cornerstone<\/a> has spent 20 years developing much of Long Island City in Queens. While the company\u2019s reputation precedes them at this point, meaning lots of retailers have faith that its residential towers will fully lease up, that faith has its limits, leaving the company with the greatest success from retailers that already have experience with, or at least a deep understanding of, the Queens neighborhood<\/p>\n \u201cWe did speak to a couple of Manhattan-based restaurateurs and tried to lure them out,\u201d said Steve Gonzalez, vice president in charge of retail leasing for TF Cornerstone. \u201cSometimes, people from Manhattan are just focused on Manhattan, and it\u2019s a little bit hard to pull them over the bridge. The folks who really get Long Island City are either Long Island City residents, or just people who have been familiar with the area for a long time. We have managed to get a few retailers to open their first locations in Queens \u2014 at our Malt Drive developments, for example, Sundays nail salon made the jump \u2014 but a lot of the other retail base is either from here or just very, very familiar with the waterfront.\u201d<\/p>\n To get a deeper glimpse of the perceived ups and downs of a middle-income neighborhood in the eyes of retailers, let\u2019s look at one rare leisure-associated retailer that has opened in the Kensington area over the past five years or so.<\/p>\n Lofty Pigeon Books is located in a 1,200-square-foot space at 743 Church Avenue, on the corner of Church Avenue and East Eighth Street, between main thoroughfares Ocean Parkway and Coney Island Avenue. The only bookstore for over half a mile at least, according to Google Maps, it was launched in August 2023 by husband and wife booksellers Briana Parker and Davi Marra.<\/p>\n Directly across the street is a 24-hour car wash and oil change spot. The block it\u2019s on is an interesting collection of mom-and-pop athletic gear and apparel shops, closed storefronts, municipal-looking offices without signs, delis and community centers catering to Spanish-speaking and Islamic populations, and one bar and one cafe-bakery right next to each other, each barely over 1,000 square feet, including back kitchen and office areas, according to data site Property Shark.<\/p>\n Parker and Marra met while working at the Upper East Side\u2019s Corner Bookstore, and discussed opening their own store for a time as a distant possibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the COVID pandemic had many predicting the city\u2019s downfall, Parker felt the opposite.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone was like, \u2018New York\u2019s over, and cities are over\u2019 because of the pandemic,\u201d said Parker, who grew up in Brooklyn\u2019s Sheepshead Bay. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018I\u2019m from here. I feel the opposite. I want to dig my heels in. I want to be part of a community, and I want to contribute directly to the creation and sustaining of that community.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n From the outset, the couple saw possibilities in Kensington beyond what most retailers perceived, although they considered a possible Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, location as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an area with a lot of families, which can really sustain a store,\u201d said Parker. \u201cIt\u2019s also a neighborhood that really prizes community and local business. We just knew that there are not a lot of chains there \u2014 people really want mom-and-pop shops out here, and they will support them. There\u2019s also a high-income base of people here, but it\u2019s still pretty diverse economically.\u201d<\/p>\n Parker may have had a keener eye for the opportunity than most based on what she saw growing up in Sheepshead Bay.<\/p>\n \u201cI lived off the Q train, and I watched Cortelyou Road grow into a much more commercial area,\u201d said Parker. \u201cSo [the area] was sort of in our gut. There really wasn\u2019t a bookstore here or even a ton of retail, but it was ripe for it.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple was emboldened by census data showing the area had a high percentage of college graduates and post-graduates, and that the total number of people in the area eclipsed that of much smaller towns that supported their own bookstores. Parker said that they homed in on their current block before there was even space available.\u00a0<\/p>\n They also did a foot traffic study showing that foot traffic on the block was higher than one might expect, due to factors that included its location between Ocean Parkway and Coney Island Avenue, and the presence of the cafe-bakery, the bar and a liquor store that has since closed, among other factors.<\/p>\n \u201cThis little commercial pocket gets a good amount of foot traffic, plus it\u2019s on a corner,\u201d said Parker. \u201cOther businesses fed into it, along with foot traffic patterns for people coming to and from nearby subway stops and schools, and even people who go birding in Green-Wood [Cemetery] who pass by.\u201d<\/p>\n Parker also noted that having the cafe-bakery on the block gave them an advantage.<\/p>\n \u201cDer Pioneer [the cafe-bakery at 737 Church Avenue] is super popular and brings a lot of people to the block,\u201d said Parker. \u201cA lot of bookstores open with cafes in them. We didn\u2019t necessarily want to do that, but it is really helpful to have that nearby, because bookstores don\u2019t necessarily drive foot traffic themselves. Having a cafe where people go every day for coffee is kind of a nice pairing.\u201d<\/p>\n Parker said that after deciding on their current spot following a three-year search that included a better-than-expected deal from their landlord, Lofty Pigeon has done solid business, including meeting its third-year revenue projections in the store\u2019s first year.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the opening and subsequent success of Lofty Pigeon, which has expanded beyond just books to sell gifts and cards and host events such as readings and open mic nights, feels like it was blessed by a touch of kismet, even down to becoming a destination for people waiting for their cars to be washed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s sort of in this perfect intersection that\u2019s hard to replicate,\u201d said Parker. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to be the first as a bookstore. It\u2019s hard to be the first business of your type in any area. I think there is a perfect mix of compatible businesses, but, also, there isn\u2019t a ton of retail. So we don\u2019t just get book traffic. Greeting cards and other things have been a bigger part of what we do than we expected.\u201d<\/p>\n The challenges in finding the ideal site for a business like Lofty Pigeon, or in attracting businesses of this sort, would be familiar to developers creating new sites in less-than-ultra-wealthy areas, but the specifics change with the circumstance.<\/p>\n BFC Partners<\/a> is currently developing a three-building, 1,250-unit residential site on Coney Island\u2019s Surf Avenue, an area of Brooklyn that has generally been known for warm weather attractions \u2014 and a shuttered vibe burdened by high crime much of the rest of the time.<\/p>\n \u201cConey Island, historically, in the past, has been a ghost town in the wintertime,\u201d said Joseph Ferrara, a principal at BFC Partners. \u201cBecause the amusement parks are closed, you\u2019ve got these tenants across the street that shut down for the winter. \u2018Emerging neighborhood\u2019 is a very loose term when you\u2019re talking about Coney Island, because it\u2019s been around for over a century. But with regards to residential, it\u2019s emerging.\u201d<\/p>\n Ferrara notes that in a situation like BFC\u2019s, recruiting the basics for living has taken priority.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really important that the tenants moving into these projects have the basic social services and retail support, like a pharmacy, a laundromat, a supermarket, a medical group, that type of stuff,\u201d said Ferrara, whose earliest tenants included a Shop Fair Supermarket, a \u201ctreat and release\u201d patient center from public agency NYC Health + Hospitals, an optometrist and a pharmacy. \u201cWe knew out of the gate that these would be the first retailers interested when those services are lacking in an existing community.\u201d<\/p>\n While Ferrara has been assisted by the brand recognition that Coney Island brings, he\u2019s had less luck in less notable areas.<\/p>\n In November 2024, BFC opened a $151 million, 270-unit affordable community in Staten Island called the Pearl, which was the largest affordable housing project in the borough. Half the project\u2019s units were earmarked for formerly homeless seniors earning no more than 30 percent of area median income (AMI), with the remaining units available for those earning up to 80 percent of AMI.<\/p>\n Here, Ferrara said, finding retail tenants has been a challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had a 10,000-square-foot retail space, I\u2019ve gone to three brokers already, and I still have gotten minimal interest in a beautiful, brand-new building with 270 apartments,\u201d said Ferrara, who is in late-stage discussions with several health- In Ferrara\u2019s case, the low incomes of the residents, the lack of public transportation connecting the area to the rest of the city, and the more inhibitive zoning until recently have all served as barriers for bringing in quality retail.<\/p>\n But even in a much more promising high-income area, ingenuity is sometimes required to attract higher-quality retailers.<\/p>\n
owned businesses that included \u201cbakeries, restaurants, hardware stores and a movie theater.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Projects](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Nevins-Landing-KM_260116_0003-WEB.jpg\" "\\"New")
Nevins Landing in Gowanus. PHOTO: Katherine Marks\/for Commercial Observer<\/p>\n![\"Lofty](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Briana-Parker-Lofty-Pigeon-Books-1-credit-Jim-S-CO-WEB.jpg\" "\\"New")
Lofty Pigeon Books co-owner Briana Parker. PHOTO: Jim Sewastynowicz\/Commercial Observer<\/p>\n
related retailers but has yet to sign any leases. \u201cBut you know what\u2019s lacking? I\u2019ve got 270 new apartments right there, but there\u2019s nothing new [in retail] anywhere down this corridor. And, you\u2019ve got a transitioning neighborhood that was recently rezoned for residential, so you\u2019ve got these really small-scale one- and two-family homes, and then you\u2019ve got mechanic shops and body shops because, historically, that\u2019s what it was zoned for. That retail space has been a struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n