Just an FYI, Fulton Street has been a "retail" street for over a century; if the data is still true, it's actually the third-highest grossing retail street in NYC
http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/16450...e-Brooklyn-NY/. What's actually happening is that the type of retail that's been there for years is being replaced by more national chains in at least the mid-range, with of course hopes to move up to higher-end retail to play off of the markets in the surrounding and gentrified or increasingly gentrified neighborhoods: Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Ft. Greene, Clinton Hill, and Downtown Brooklyn itself.