Bushwick
Loft Space.

Usually a floor or part-floor in a brick mill building, a converted brewery structure, or an industrial warehouse — high ceilings, big windows or skylights, exposed masonry and heavy timber or steel, a freight elevator or a drive-in door, and almost no build-out. Bushwick's stock is rawer than Williamsburg's and cheaper than anywhere else in north Brooklyn, which is the whole appeal.

Asking rents typically run about $30–$55 per square foot per year, depending on the building, the floor, and how much has been done to it. Raw space in the industrial corridor sits at the low end; finished floors near the Morgan and Jefferson L stops push the high end. Bushwick is consistently the best value per foot in north Brooklyn.

Genuinely small. Because so much of the stock has already been demised for artists, studios from 300 to 1,200 sq ft are common and easy to find. Whole floors typically run 3,000 to 12,000 sq ft. If you want a real loft on a small budget, this is the neighborhood where the math works.

Better than people expect, and better than Greenpoint. The L runs through at Morgan Ave, Jefferson St, DeKalb Ave and Myrtle-Wyckoff; the M covers Knickerbocker, Central and Seneca; and the J/Z run the length of Broadway. Most of the loft stock is a short walk from at least two lines, and both the L and the M reach Manhattan directly.

This is the best neighborhood in north Brooklyn for it. A large share of Bushwick sits inside the Industrial Business Zone — the Johnson, Scott, Porter and Randolph Street corridor — where heavy use is expected rather than tolerated. Kilns, spray booths, venting, three-phase power and loading docks are all findable here. Lead with what you're making.

By 1890 as many as fourteen breweries ran inside a fourteen-block stretch, and a lot of that masonry survives — the landmarked William Ulmer complex at Beaver and Belvidere is the best-preserved. Some has been converted to offices and studios, some to housing, and many of the brick lagering vaults are still under the streets. Beautiful structures, but check the ceiling heights and the floor loads before you fall for one.

Possible, and Bushwick has more of it than anywhere else in Brooklyn — but it is a permitting question, not a lease question. Public assembly needs the right certificate of occupancy and, above a certain occupancy, a Place of Assembly permit. Ask what the CofO actually says before you sign, not after.

Cheaper and rawer than both, with better transit than Greenpoint and a far deeper industrial base than Williamsburg. What you give up is polish — fewer renovated lobbies, more buildings where the freight is the amenity. What you get is space, tolerance for what you're making, and rents that leave money for the build-out.

The mill and factory stock around Morgan Ave, Jefferson St and Bogart St, the converted brewery masonry near Meserole and Melrose, the Wyckoff and Troutman blocks behind the murals, and the larger industrial floors along Johnson, Scott and Porter inside the Industrial Business Zone.

Yes, and more here than in Williamsburg. Bushwick ownership skews small and long-hold — families and single-building owners who never list anything and rent by word of mouth. A large share of the good space in this neighborhood is only findable by asking, which is basically the reason this page exists.