Montague Street Is Filling In From Both Ends. Here's What Changes Next.

At 112 Montague Street, the window frames are green, chipped and blistered. A sheet of printer paper in the glass reads "Building FOR LEASE," and the Brooklyn Eagle reported in August that the phone number posted upstairs goes unanswered. The two-story building has been empty for roughly 14 years, ever since Starbucks moved a few doors up the block.

That building now sits on a street The New York Times describes as wanted. On October 28 the paper published "Nobody wanted Montague Street. Now everybody does." Both things hold, and the reason explains the order in which the street will change. Small operators moving into storefronts that already exist are coming first, while the two big projects at either end run on a late-decade clock and the priciest empty spaces in the middle are likely to wait longest.

Six Percent Vacancy, and Which Spaces Make It Up

Kate Chura of the Montague Business Improvement District puts the street's vacancy at around six percent, down from at least 20 percent during the pandemic, according to the Brooklyn Heights Dispatch summary of the Times piece. The same summary dates the turnaround to 2022, when L'Appartement 4F and Books Are Magic opened. Those were two of the things neighbors asked for in a December 2020 Brooklyn Heights Association survey.

At six percent, only a few storefronts are empty, and the best documented of them carry some of the highest rents on the street.

The Books Are Magic row is the baseline. Owner Emma Straub told the Times she pays more than $20,000 a month at 122 Montague, which is double what she pays for the bookstore's Smith Street location, as the Dispatch recounts. A successful bookstore is already paying the rent that the empty storefront at 160 is asking for, and the asking rent at 112 is half again as much. In its August piece, the Eagle described the landlord at 112 as holding out for a "perfect" tenant.

So the rest of the street's comeback is coming from tenants who can work inside spaces whose numbers already make sense to someone.

What Opens First Moves Into a Space That Already Exists

Two arrivals are closest, and both are reusing spaces that were already in operation.

First Bloom at 144 Montague. Alison Roman's grocery started in Bloomville, New York, in 2023 and later ran a pop-up on the Lower East Side. Its Brooklyn Heights location is going into the former Bentley's Shoes, a large storefront below street level. Bentley's closed after 43 years, Curbed reported in May. According to Curbed, the job postings promised a shop "bigger and more ambitious than what we built upstate," with a coffee program, a small café for prepared foods and a retail floor for produce. The Dispatch's summary of the Times article adds wine at night and says Roman looked at six spaces on the street before choosing this one. Roman told her newsletter readers in May that the shop would open in the fall. As of the Brooklyn Bridge Parents October roundup, no opening date had been announced.

Khiao Savoey at 101 Montague. Lantern Thai Kitchen served its last meal on September 30 after 20 years on the street. Pineapple Street reported at the time that the space would be renovated and reopened under new management. In October, Pineapple Street followed up: Lantern's owners filed a liquor license application with Community Board 2 to reopen the space as Khiao Savoey. The menu filed with the application lists pad thai and green curry, along with specials such as lobster tail and soft-shell crab. No opening date has been posted.

Neither opening needs a vacant storefront to be repriced. One space turned over between owners of the same restaurant. The other was a shoe store that a well-known food operator chose from six options.

The Two Ends Run on a Later Clock

Montague Street runs from the Promenade to Cadman Plaza West, and each end has a project in progress. Both are years away.

At the Promenade end, the Hotel Bossert at 98 Montague fills the whole Hicks Street block between Montague and Remsen. SomeraRoad, a firm founded by Brooklyn Heights resident Ian Ross, bought the building for $100 million in May 2025. It plans 61 condominiums, mostly three- and four-bedroom units. The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 9-0 on September 1 to approve a revised rooftop plan. The revision set the 13th and 15th floors back and moved the mechanical equipment down to the 12th-floor roof after the Brooklyn Heights Association raised concerns about the view from Hicks Street.

For people who will never buy a condo there, the news is on the ground floor. Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group has signed for a 3,200-square-foot restaurant, its first full-service restaurant in Brooklyn. In September, a SomeraRoad spokesperson told Pineapple Street that the building and the restaurant were slated to open in 2028. The Dispatch's summary of the Times article gives 2029 for the condos. Either way, the restaurant is a few years out.

At the Cadman Plaza end, demolition is finished and construction has started at 205 Montague, where Landau Properties is building One Montague Place, the Brooklyn Eagle reported in August. The plans call for a 51-story tower with 136 units, 46 condos and 90 rentals. Sales are set to launch in 2027, and completion is expected in 2029. The Eagle reported that BondST will open its first Brooklyn location in the building, which will also house a jazz club. The Dispatch describes the jazz club as being for residents and reports that TD Bank has leased the corner storefront.

Here are the street's known changes, in the order they are expected:

1. Now: 101 Montague is dark while Lantern's owners prepare Khiao Savoey, and 144 Montague is getting ready for First Bloom. Neither has announced an opening date.
2. 2027: One Montague Place begins sales at 205 Montague.
3. 2028: The Bossert and its Union Square Hospitality Group restaurant are slated to open at 98 Montague, according to the developer. The Times summary gives 2029 for completion of the condos.
4. 2029: One Montague Place is completed, with BondST and the corner TD Bank.
5. No date: 112 and 160 Montague, at $30,000 and $20,000 a month.

The Middle of the Street Has Already Held Up

Between the two construction sites, the street has businesses that came through the bad years. The Dispatch points to Lassen & Hennigs, open since 1949, and the original Häagen-Dazs, open since 1976. It also credits the bookstore, the bakery and the diner with showing that the neighborhood will support good local businesses. That middle stretch is also where the street's public life happens. This fall, Montague Open Streets closed Montague from Clinton to Hicks from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on seven Sundays, from September 13 to October 25. The Montague BID presented the program with the Brooklyn Heights Association and NYC DOT. The October 25 finale held a dog costume contest near Montague Diner at 148 Montague.

L'Appartement 4F keeps adding to its calendar beyond baked goods. Pineapple Street listed a one-night omakase there on September 15 with Shom Mazumder, formerly of Bridges, Estela and the Four Horsemen, and a pet pop-up with the apparel brand Fren on October 10. The 2022 businesses are now running events of their own, and the new arrivals on the street will be competing with them.

Still on the 2020 Wish List

The December 2020 Brooklyn Heights Association survey that asked for a bakery and a bookstore also asked for a fishmonger and a butcher, according to the Dispatch. The bakery and the bookstore arrived in 2022. Six years after the survey, the fishmonger and the butcher are still missing, and none of the announced projects includes one. First Bloom's produce floor is the closest fit on the list of what is coming.

The two storefronts the street has been unable to fill are still listed at $30,000 a month at 112 Montague and $20,000 a month at 160 Montague.

If you own near Montague Street and want to understand how a 2028 restaurant opening or a 2029 tower completion affects your plans, Alexander Calle and JC Luxury Group follow these addresses one by one. Schedule Your Strategy Call and we'll go through the timeline with you.