The empty storefront, that reliable symbol of retail gloom, is getting harder to find on Fifth Avenue. A report released Tuesday by the Brooklyn Retail Alliance puts the vacancy rate along the Park Slope corridor at 6.2 percent, the lowest since 2021 and down from 11 percent just two years ago.

The report counts 19 new businesses opened on the avenue between Flatbush and 15th Street in the past year, including a Filipino bakery, a board game cafe, a shoe repair shop, and what the report drily categorizes as "three distinct vinyl-adjacent concepts."

Analysts credit landlords who finally blinked. "The magic ingredient is not magic, it's shorter leases and subdivided spaces," said Deirdre Mancini, the alliance's research director. "A 600-square-foot storefront at a two-year term is a bet a first-time owner can actually make."

The picture is not uniform. Vacancy remains above 12 percent on stretches of Flatbush near the Barclays Center, where larger floor plates sit dark, and the report warns that a single rent spike could undo the avenue's gains. Still, Mancini allowed herself modest optimism. "Two years ago we were writing obituaries," she said. "Now we're writing lease summaries. That's progress."