Why have we posted this slideshow? Well, first off it show nearly an entire city block in Downtown Brooklyn where buisinesses have closed. Why? Because the properties have slowly been sold off for a huge project called Avalon Willoughby West that will tentively be 60 stories tall. Brownstoner has been following the development of this story brilliantly, most recently with renderings of what would go here. Avalon Willoughby West would be a residential and commercial development of about 800,000 square feet. These properties are now owned by Avalon Willoughby West LLC according to Property Shark. We run these photos to show that a kind of slow ethnic cleansing of Downtown Brooklyn is taking place as huge parcels that once housed mom and pop businesses that catered to people of modest means are being wiped out. Some have moved. Most have simply gone out of business. This is, of course, part of the city’s official plan for the neighborhood. They call it redevelopment, naturally, and something that will create a new and thriving Downtown. What we see are empty streets and the horrifying possibillity that if this development isn’t financed and entire city block that was thriving will become an empty wasteland for years to come. (This will mess with the plans of other developing hotels and rental towers.) Guess we won’t be getting invited to any receptions at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership anytime soon.

(This rendering by Jared Bartels appears to have been taken offline after being posted by Brownstoner, from which we’ve borrowed it.)