Signs Of Life On 5th Ave Between Bergen & Dean

The block of 5th Avenue between Dean and Bergen Streets is starting to get a bit lively again, after sitting with several vacancies for quite some time.

La Belle Boutique, a new women’s clothing and accessories store, has opened at 43 5th Avenue, next door to Area Kids. It takes over the space that was most recently also a women’s boutique, La Vedette, which closed last year and moved its stock into its sister space, The Gentlemen’s Shop.

Up the block toward Flatbush, the former O’Connor’s pub space, which has been either under construction or stalled since the 81-year-old bar closed in 2012, is seeing some life, and a commenter on Here’s Park Slope recently said he heard an Irish pub (O’Connor’s still, or something new, we’re not sure) “should be opening soon.”

Here’s hoping that this is a string of good luck for this whole section of 5th, and that we’ll also see some movement across the street at 46 5th Avenue, which, according to records at the Department of Buildings, has been struggling with renovations and certificate of occupancy issues for several years.