He may have colonized Manhattan from the Battery to midtown, but Danny Meyer tells the Commercial Observer that Brooklyn is an entirely different ball game. “Because of the sprawl and the small spaces, the runway is a lot longer for innovative entrepreneurs to open spaces on a much smaller budget,” Meyer contends, adding that as soon as rents shoot up in one neighborhood, “that’s when you get a Bushwick or Bed-Stuy.” But don’t expect USGQ to go all reclaimed BK: The future of decent food, he says, is more decentralized — hence the concession stand headed to Brooklyn, and major plans for even more Shake Shacks by major commercial centers. By the time he revives Nomad, gentrification will have come full circle: “The thing about Union Square is it’s getting so old that it’s going to be new again.” [Commercial Observer, Earlier, Earlier]
