For Brooklyn Businesses, Barclays Center Has Been A Mixed Story

One of the new apartment towers that went up as a part of the Pacific Park project that is just a block away from the Barclays Center. Photo by Dalton Hanna

Freddy’s Bar, to some, was once the heart and soul of Downtown Brooklyn on the busy thoroughfare that is Flatbush Avenue. Like a number of small businesses operating in Prospect Heights during the early 2000s, the arrival of the Barclays Center and the rest of the multi-billion dollar Atlantic Yards project, now called Pacific Park, would displace Freddy’s, forcing the bar to migrate over to Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. Now, a decade later, Freddy’s has slowly built itself back up again, but the business isn’t quite the same.

The Barclays Center, home to the Brooklyn Nets, was the first project of many in the still-developing Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project, which will eventually include some 15 towers by 2035. The project was originally conceived by Forrest City Ratner. The 19,000-seat center — which has played host to major concerts with artists from The Rolling Stones and Ariana Grande to Jay-Z and Rihanna — opened after years of controversy when the developer successfully won an eminent domain fight to acquire property for the mega-project.

As a result of the displacement, Freddy’s Bar moved off of its homey, traditional location on Flatbush Ave. to a newer venue on Fifth Ave. Patty O’Shea has worked at this bar since 2008 and transferred with the bar.

“In the area that we’re in before, there was a bit more foot traffic because of our close proximity to Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue,” O’Shea said. “We established ourselves with our new neighbors, but this part of town just doesn’t have the same amount of people or tourists as it did in the other area.”

However, O’Shea’s opinion is just one side of the story in this bustling retail hub. Other businesses praise Barclays and the crowds the stadium regularly brings weekly. Ming Wei is the owner of Squarrel’s Cafe, which has only been open for five years, and so he missed the intense battles that erupted between area businesses and the developer over the project.

“I don’t think they [Barclays] has negatively affected business around the neighborhood, and if anything it’s brought crowds,” he says. “The stores on 5th Avenue probably attract the most Barclays business, and I’ve heard those food [restaurants] and bars do really well.”

Whether helpful for business or not, Barclays Center has definitely changed the makeup of stores in Downtown Brooklyn. Where mom and pop storefronts once lined the strip, now Apple and $3,500 designer sneaker outlets Flatbush Avenue. Some see the change in Brooklyn as a sign of progress, but longtime locals like O’Shea sympathize with the Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn grassroots campaign that emerged to block Barclays from being constructed.

When Barclays was being planned, Freddy’s Bar became more than just a restaurant but a center of activism housing the mission to fight against the displacement of Brooklynites. The changes in Freddy’s Bar in this past decade are just one example of the dozens of Atlantic Yards businesses that have had to modernize and develop with the growing neighborhood.

“The old Freddy’s was kind of the home base for a lot of people who were involved in fighting against the arena, and Freddy’s would host a lot of events and meetings or in some cases, interviews for those a part of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. Personally, I do hold a bit of resentment. I [used to] live down in that area [in Downtown Brooklyn], and the development of that [project] never seemed to [follow through] on all of their promises.” O’Shea says while referring to the amount of affordable housing that the then-developer vowed to build while receiving tax breaks from the city. “However we have been settled in [to the new location] for a while now, and, post-pandemic business has been good.”

This story was produced with reporting for the School of The York Times