What’s Opening and Closing in Brooklyn Heights?
Updated August 29, 2026.
Hush Street is tracking the businesses, storefronts, and vacancies changing Brooklyn Heights — a different lens from our development tracker, which follows what’s being physically built. This one follows what’s opening, closing, sitting empty, or quietly changing hands on the neighborhood’s commercial streets: Montague Street, Atlantic Avenue, Henry Street, Court Street.
This is a new format for us, built by cross-referencing public records most people never think to check — landmarks filings, liquor license applications, health department registrations — against what we could independently verify. Some of what follows is confirmed. Some is still an open question. We say which is which, and we’ll keep this page updated as we learn more.
| Place | Location | Status |
|---|---|---|
| The former CVS | 168 Montague Street | Vacant, tenant incoming |
| 90 Henry Street | 90 Henry Street | Incoming |
| Colonie’s old space | 127 Atlantic Avenue | Closed, tenant likely incoming |
| Montague Street turnover | Montague Street | Active / Ongoing |
| Two mystery storefronts | 125 Montague St. & 60 Henry St. | Under renovation, tenant unknown |
| Walgreens closes | Court & Montague Streets | Closed |
The Former CVS Finally Has a Future
CVS’s own real estate arm was already marketing this space as vacant by December 2022, which means the pharmacy that anchored this corner for the better part of a decade has now sat empty longer than it takes most residents to notice a business is really gone. In the meantime, the space has had a second life every fall as a Spirit Halloween.
What We Know
CVS closed here on or before December 2022. Spirit Halloween has occupied the space seasonally at least through the 2026 season. And in January 2026, Commercial Observer reported that Blooming Prep — a new school built around the Reggio Emilia teaching model, whose operating entity was only registered in May 2025 — signed a nine-year, 11,320-square-foot sublease here at $75 a square foot, brokered by Verada Retail and Cushman & Wakefield.
What We Don’t Know
Nobody has announced when Blooming Prep plans to open, and no permit work has surfaced yet to suggest construction has started. We’ll update this section once it does.
Sources: Commercial Observer; CVS Health real estate listing; Yelp; Spirit Halloween store listings
A Storefront Notice, and What the Records Show
A posted notice in a storefront window is one of the oldest ways a neighborhood finds out something is changing, and it’s still often the fastest. When we went looking for a paper trail behind this one, we found something interesting: the city’s own landmarks records had already flagged this address weeks earlier.
What the Sign Says
The notice identifies the incoming operator as Doubles Grand St LLC, doing business as Doubles, applying for a full liquor license through Brooklyn Community Board 2.
What the Records Show
Landmarks Preservation Commission filings show interior alteration work at 90 Henry Street was withdrawn on July 13, 2026, then refiled and approved on July 20 — three to four weeks before the storefront notice appeared. The filing doesn’t name a tenant, so it couldn’t have told us it was “Doubles,” but it did mark the address as changing before any sign went up. We checked the state’s own liquor licensing database directly; as of this writing, no application for this address or this business name has appeared there yet. That’s not unusual — state filings often lag the notice posted at the premises by weeks or months.
Sources: storefront notice, August 2026; NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission permit records; NYS Liquor Authority licensing database
Colonie Closes on Atlantic Avenue
Colonie was a fixture on this stretch of Atlantic Avenue for about fourteen years before closing at the end of November 2025. We hadn’t set out looking for what would replace it — but while pulling city health department registrations for a different part of this research, the same address turned up again, this time for a new, not-yet-inspected establishment called Confidant. It’s the kind of connection that only shows up when you’re tracking a place, not just a headline.
We haven’t independently confirmed Confidant’s concept, ownership, or opening timeline. We’re treating the address match as a strong signal, not a confirmed fact.
Sources: NYC Department of Health restaurant registration records; local press on Colonie’s closure
Montague Street’s Quiet Turnover
The clearest recent opening on Montague Street is Café Brume, an Alpine-inspired wine bar and bistro at 80 Montague Street that opened April 24, 2025.
It’s not the only new name on the block. State liquor licensing records show at least nine businesses newly licensed on Montague Street since the start of 2025 — Khaosan, Xisan De Classic, Grand Canyon Restaurant, Montague Diner, Café Brume, The Customs House, a second-floor tenant called Don at 142 Montague, L’Appartemant 4F, and Felice — several of them replacing previous, differently-named businesses at the same addresses. We haven’t reconstructed the full occupancy history behind each one, but the volume itself is a real, quantifiable sign of how much this one street has turned over in a short window. It’s a story we plan to dig into further.
Sources: NYS Liquor Authority licensing records; Resy; Yelp
Two Mystery Storefronts
Not every storefront under construction comes with a sign telling you what’s moving in. At 125 Montague Street, owner Midwood Investment & Development has had storefront and entryway work underway on and off since 2024 — real, ongoing construction with no tenant named in any filing we could find.
At 60 Henry Street, building permits describe the buildout of “a new eating and drinking establishment” dating to 2024 — enough to know a restaurant or bar is coming, not enough to know its name. If you know what’s opening at either address, we’d like to hear from you.
Sources: NYC Department of Buildings permit records
Another Drugstore Gone
This Walgreens sits right at Brooklyn Heights’ edge with Downtown Brooklyn, but it’s close enough to Montague Street’s retail strip that its closure was a real loss for people who shopped it as part of the neighborhood. No replacement has been announced.
Sources: local press coverage of the closure
Know something opening, closing, or changing hands in Brooklyn Heights? Let us know.
Hush Street Editorial researches and reports on the projects, permits, and physical changes reshaping Brooklyn — and, more broadly, New York City. Reporting draws on primary-source city records — Department of Buildings filings, land-use and planning applications, agency and community-board documents — verified and cross-checked against independent reporting where it exists. Coverage is continuously updated as new filings and decisions are recorded, and confirmed facts are distinguished from open questions.
