November 11, 2011 DeKalb Avenue Arrives, Tourists and All By CHRISTIAN
L. WRIGHT 


DEPENDING on the time of day, DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn can look
like a sepia-toned photograph from the 19th century, a chic international
playground, or, at its best, the New York City melting pot at a nice,
gentle simmer.

And plenty in between: lately, for instance, the TV show “Pan Am”
has been filming on this avenue near Fort Greene Park.

The other Tuesday afternoon, a be-scarfed couple, West European expats,
were finishing a late lunch at a chic cafe table just as a cacophonous
group of schoolchildren were beating a path to the Good Joy Chinese
restaurant for ketchup-drenched French fries in little paper takeout
boxes.

A well-heeled mother with an infant strapped to her chest popped into
Elly’s Market to pick up a few things from shelves that were as neat
as a pin. A man in his 60s casually leaned his bicycle against the
front window of the Pratt Area Community Council’s storefront and,
without locking up the bike, went inside. Just then a GrayLine Tours
double-decker cruised slowly west along DeKalb, with tourists on the
top deck, popping their heads up like baby chicks under a heat lamp.

“Fort Greene has become a real global destination,” said Anthony
Williams, an agent with Corcoran and a self-described Brooklyn boy
who’s been living here for the most part of 30 years. “You see all
the communities mingling. It’s like our own Greenwich Village.”

The 10-block swath of DeKalb from St. Felix Street to Vanderbilt Avenue
is anchored at the western end by Brooklyn Technical High School, the
right-angled behemoth with a pointy radio tower on the roof that’s one
of the country’s leading public schools. Among its alumni, it counts
a NASA astronaut, at least one four-star general and “The Incredible
Hulk,” a k a Lou Ferrigno.

Across the street, you can see the current students making good use of
Fort Greene Park, 33 rolling acres designated in 1847 as Brooklyn’s
first park and redesigned 20 years later by Frederick Law Olmsted. Some
groups head out in their numbered jerseys and shinguards to play soccer
on the dirt pitch that’s also used by residents for fairly competitive
weekend games of football. There are busy public tennis courts here, too.

The park takes up four blocks of the north side of DeKalb, and rises above
street level, so that its lawns and walking paths and pin oaks are a few
steps up from the uneven sidewalk. The handsome brownstones standing along
the south side of DeKalb, from South Elliott Place to Cumberland Street,
face the park and have unobstructed views of Olmsted’s landscaping.

At the end of August, the well-kept five-story house at No. 154 was sold
for about $2.1 million by Aguayo & Huebener Realty, a boutique agency
that opened in 1998 and specializes in Brooklyn.

Roslyn Huebener, who lives just south of DeKalb, said, “I bought
here 25 years ago for the beauty and for the close-knit quality of the
neighborhood.” Since then, “as word spread, there’s been a steady
increase in value in Fort Greene. It’s been unstoppable.”

Many of the stately houses that line part of DeKalb, adding to the
quiet grandeur of the tree-shaded side streets, date to the early or
mid-1800s. Here and there, just to the north and just to the south of
DeKalb, you’ll see pale clapboard houses or a columned front porch
on a three-story wooden beauty, and get a whiff of the old South. The
Landmarks Preservation Commission designated this part of Fort Greene
as a historic district in 1978, inhibiting demolition and development
and keeping local artisans — chimney builders, iron casters, plaster
workers — very busy.

At the southeastern corner of the park on Saturdays, the Fort Greene
Greenmarket sprouts up and extends a block north along Washington Place.

Farther east as DeKalb becomes more commercial, storefronts are occupied
by small shops like Thirst Wine Merchants (No. 187) and restaurants like
Dino (No. 222), while many of the residential buildings on the avenue have
been divided into apartments, from top-floor garret to basement warren.

Ten years ago, when Darrell Cooper, a consultant in the legal field
for electronic recovery, bought his studio apartment at No. 181, he paid
$39,000 cash. “I started looking in Manhattan but pricing was insane,”
said Mr. Cooper, 42. “I had friends here. I liked it. It was diverse
— and I do mean in race and age — with a lot going on. This spot
was reachable and attainable.”

The building has since gone co-op and embarked upon significant capital
improvements. Mr. Cooper, who bought two more units, is now the board
president of the 181-183 DeKalb Owners Corporation. He may have to decamp
to the West Coast for a new job, so he has reluctantly been talking to
his broker, Carolyn Romberg of the Corcoran Group. She said he could
list the original studio for $225,000. That’s just shy of six times
his investment (not counting the rental income).

Meanwhile, the business boom on the avenue is added value, as they like to
say in marketing circles. From Cumberland Street to Vanderbilt Avenue, the
concentrated array of restaurants would make Danny Meyer lick his chops.

The list includes Madiba, a South A