A New Look at a Mysterious Cortelyou Storefront

As Ditmas Park continues to attract people willing to venture past Prospect Park to live, shop, and eat, more companies and entrepreneurs seem to want to open businesses here, particularly on Cortelyou Road (see most recently Brooklyn Industries). Every empty storefront promises the potential to become something new and exciting for the neighborhood.

The storefront at 1218 Cortelyou Road, between Argyle and Westminster, is no exception. The place sits snugly between New Hong Kong and the now-closed dry cleaners, but it has been closed and shut down for over a decade. Looking at the property, there is no indication of any plan to develop it into a business. People passing by don’t even seem to notice it.

According to public records, the building has been owned by the same family since 1983. We found that in the 1950s, Frank Blest sold water heaters out of the space, but can anyone remember a businesses that was in the space more recently than that?

When we asked the local real estate team at Brooklyn Hearth if they knew anything about the location, they sent back an email stating:

“The owner of the building lives in Long Island and is a real estate attorney and gave the building (in spirit not in deed) to his son who is using it as a storage space. He has no interest in renting the building. We used to ask him every six months if he has changed his mind, but he has not.”

It’s hard to imagine that a property owner would not want to take advantage of the increasing popularity of the neighborhood and rent out an available storefront. We’re not sure the circumstances, but for now, we just need to face the fact that the storefront will remain empty for the foreseeable future.

If it were to be available, what kind of business do you think could work there? What is Cortelyou Road still missing?