The corner of Atlantic Avenue and Boerum Place is fast becoming Downtown’s mini-mall district.
A developer is constructing another shopping center on the site that will house an outlet of teen-targeted discount store Five Below — right next to a newly opened complex with a Michael’s and another across the road sporting a Marshalls.
Builder Laundry Capital is erecting a three-story property between Boerum Place and Smith Street with the doodad emporium — which sells trinkets to tweens priced at $5 or less — in the basement level, according to a broker from the company’s real-estate firm.
The developer hasn’t signed on any other tenants yet, but the rep claims he is looking for some smaller, local businesses — although the marketing materials feature a rendering with a juice bar and a gym and a map of other chain stores in the area.
“We want a mix of national and local retailers,” said Harris Reichenbaum of real-estate firm Ripco. “We’re trying to do something where there’s a happy medium where you have the smaller stores.”
The building’s ground floor will have five smaller store spaces, while the whole third floor will likely be filled by a fancy school, a salon, a furniture store, or a gym, according to Reichenbaum.
Construction is underway and the building is slated to open in early 2018, he said.
A two-story shopping center housing arts and craft supply chain Michael’s and a Blink Fitness opened next door in April, and an 11-story retail and residential complex just opened across the road in November with an outpost of budget clothing empire Marshalls, a Sleep Number mattress store and a Planet Fitness gym on the horizon.
Atlantic Avenue was once known for its antique shops and Middle Eastern grocers, but Reichenbaum claims the span’s mom and pop days are behind it and the new shopping center will fit in with the current retail environment.
“Atlantic Avenue is a pretty big street, it’s not exactly Court Street or Smith Street,” he said. “There’s definitely a commercial element to it — we’re trying to do something that’s a happy medium.”
