August was a rather slow month in terms of new amenities for families in Brooklyn, however here are the new openings: an interim New Lots library with a free adult learning center alongside it, a fourth Treasure Trunk Theatre studio in the South Slope, a free equipment-lending activity center on Governors Island, a full-size Lidl on Grand Street in Williamsburg, a brand-new Pilates studio in Bay Ridge. Further out: the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music opens a second Park Slope location in September, and the Carroll Gardens and Red Hook libraries are both due back.
New Lots Interim Library and Adult Learning Center | East New York | NOW OPEN
Brooklyn Public Library opened an interim New Lots branch on August 12 on the campus of St. Paul Community Baptist Church, 818 Schenck Avenue, so the neighborhood keeps library service while the permanent building is rebuilt. The interim branch carries the full range of services, including books, computers and programming, and the adult learning center alongside it runs free classes in reading and writing, high school equivalency prep and English practice. IKEA donated the furnishings. The new library, designed by MASS Design Group and Marble Fairbanks, is expected to open in 2028. The branch is open seven days a week.
Treasure Trunk Theatre | South Slope | NOW OPEN
Treasure Trunk Theatre has opened a fourth Brooklyn studio, at 408 7th Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets. The children’s theatre company, founded by a local mother of two, has been running process-based drama programmes in the borough for thirteen years: camps for ages 3–12 on school holidays, an after-school club for 3–7s with pick-up from walkable schools and optional extended day to 6pm, baby and toddler classes from birth, a gentle pre-preschool programme for ages 1.5–3, birthday parties and full-scale musicals for older kids. New families can book a free trial class. The other three studios are at 141 Atlantic Avenue in Cobble Hill, 700 Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights and 179 4th Avenue in Park Slope.
Governors Island Activity Center | Governors Island | NOW OPEN
Governors Island has opened a free activity center at the Play Lawns — a bright blue shipping container stocked with footballs, cornhole sets, binoculars and scavenger-hunt kits, all lent out at no charge. It is open every weekend from 12 to 4pm through November 1. Whoever borrows the equipment leaves a valid ID with Visitor Services for the length of the rental. Getting there from Brooklyn is the easy part: the Trust for Governors Island runs summer weekend and holiday ferries from Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6 and from Red Hook’s Atlantic Basin, and those boats are free for everyone before 11am. Children 12 and under ride free at any hour, and adults otherwise pay $5 round trip. Schedules and tickets are at govisland.org.
Lidl | Williamsburg | NOW OPEN
The Williamsburg Lidl is open. The German discount grocer opened at 573 Grand Street on Wednesday, August 26, with a ribbon-cutting at 7:40am, and trades 8am to 9pm daily. It is the chain’s fifth Brooklyn store. Lidl’s pitch is price — mostly own-label stock, a bakery running all day, and a rotating aisle of non-food bargains on Mondays — which makes it worth knowing about if you are feeding a family in a corner of Williamsburg that has not had a full-size supermarket within easy reach.
Bay Ridge Pilates | Bay Ridge | NOW OPEN
Bay Ridge Pilates has opened at 8912 3rd Avenue, right on schedule for its planned August debut. The reformer and mat studio runs classes seven days a week — 7am to 8:30pm on weekdays, 8am to 2pm on weekends — with an introductory offer of three classes for $95 and a founding-member rate of $160 a month for unlimited classes for the first 100 clients.
Cheese Plate | Williamsburg | NOW OPEN
Cheese Plate has opened a third Brooklyn shop at 175 Kent Avenue, alongside the original Park Slope store and the Carroll Gardens branch. It is a specialty counter rather than a sit-down spot: artisanal cheese, charcuterie, tinned fish, confections, pastries and pantry staples, plus made-to-order boards that start around $125 and scale up to feed twenty — useful the next time you are volunteered for a class potluck or a birthday spread. The Williamsburg shop is open until 8pm.
Coming soon to our neighborhoods
Brooklyn Science Spot | Carroll Gardens | Opening in September
A two-floor science hangout will open up at 478 Court Street, with a chemistry lab, a live animal room stocked with turtles, lizards and frogs, and a STEM toy shop upstairs. After-school classes are grouped by age from preschool up to ten, and registration is open for the fall session, which runs September through December on the NYC school calendar. Birthday parties, holiday camps and school trips too.
BKCM Prospect Park West | Park Slope
The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music is opening a second Park Slope location in September, four blocks from the brownstone on Seventh Avenue it has occupied since 1944. The 12,000-square-foot space holds 13 new studios, a 1,450-square-foot performance hall and a community gathering room, with its own entrance and an ADA-accessible ramp at 963 President Street, on Grand Army Plaza. Early childhood music classes and all on-site music therapy move here, into the new BKCM Music Therapy Institute. First day of classes and lessons is Monday, September 14, and fall registration is open at both locations.
The Goddard School of Greenpoint | Greenpoint
Brooklyn’s first Goddard School is fitting out 85 Commercial Street, with classrooms running from three-month-old infants through pre-K, an indoor gym, a literacy nook, a playground and hours of 7am to 6pm on weekdays. The school is booking tours and taking enrolment now; its own page still reads “coming soon,” and no opening date has been published.
Carroll Gardens Library | Carroll Gardens | Reopening late 2026
The landmarked Carnegie branch at 396 Clinton Street is close to the finish line, but still without a date. Brooklyn Public Library told Brooklyn Bridge Parents that the last major piece of the project is the elevator: once it is installed and inspected, which the library expects next month, the final work can begin — new furniture and shelving, setting up the technology and getting many thousands of books back on the shelves. A specific reopening date will follow that inspection. The two-part renovation adds a dedicated teen space on the mezzanine, the new elevator, new heating and cooling, new lighting and upgraded bathrooms. Until the branch is back, the pop-up library at 250 Baltic Street is open Monday and Tuesday 1–5pm, Thursday 3–7pm and Friday 10am–2pm.
Red Hook Library | Red Hook | Reopening 2027
Closed since March 2023, the Wolcott Street branch is getting a $17.5 million rebuild that adds a dedicated children’s room for storytimes, a teen space, a community room and two reservable meeting rooms, along with 14 percent more public space and outdoor reading and activity areas. It is designed as a net zero building with rooftop solar. Brooklyn Public Library told Brooklyn Bridge Parents it now expects Red Hook to reopen in early 2027, later than the 2026 completion previously advertised. The interim branch at 362 Van Brunt Street stays open in the meantime.
Goodland Pickleball | Williamsburg
An indoor pickleball club is fitting out at 105 North 13th Street, with four courts across two floors under 20-foot ceilings, a private court, a terrace and lounge, a pro shop, and a full café and bar. The part that matters for families is the juniors programme — clinics and seasonal camps for ages 7 to 16, on cushioned courts the club says are built to take the impact off young joints. Members and non-members will be able to book a court online or walk in for open play. The club is slated for late 2026 or early 2027; no firmer date and no prices have been published, and a waitlist is open on its site.
Century Marketplace | Bay Ridge
The long-vacant Century 21 building at 458 86th Street is being rebuilt as a 120,000-square-foot retail centre, and the first two tenants are signed. Burlington takes about 44,000 square feet, and a national grocery chain the developers have not yet named takes about 16,000 — the first national grocer to serve southwest Brooklyn, according to MCB Real Estate, which announced the leases this week alongside $76.7 million in construction financing from Truist. The site is half a block from the 86th Street R and has stood empty since Century 21 closed in 2018, and the finished project is meant to anchor the 86th Street shopping strip. This one is a long way out — the opening is expected in 2028 and no certificates of occupancy have been filed yet — but it is the biggest change coming to that stretch in years. The lease was first reported by the Brooklyn Paper.
Gifted and Talented Kids | Greenpoint | Opening in September
The new daycare and preschool at 16 McGuinness Boulevard South is enrolling for fall, with programs for ages 2 to 6 built around Howard Gardner’s multiple-intelligences approach, an after-school program for ages 5 to 7, and private tours of the finished ground-floor rooms available now. Full-day spots start at $2,700 a month, and the first 15 waitlist families lock in year-one pricing.
Perspire Sauna Studio | Downtown Brooklyn | Opening soon
Perspire’s Downtown Brooklyn studio at 281 Livingston Street is still listed as opening soon, with private infrared sauna suites, red light therapy and contrast therapy for parents in need of a reset. Founding memberships are on sale ahead of the opening — $129 a month for eight sessions or $179 for unlimited — and a VIP list gets first access once the doors open.
Outershed | Williamsburg | Opening date TBA
Outershed’s infrared-sauna and cold-plunge studio was slated to open in Williamsburg in mid-August, but no opening has been announced yet — the studio is currently signing up founding members on its site, promising private suites where you can sweat, plunge and reset on your own schedule.
The Beginning | Brooklyn Heights | Opening date TBA
The Beginning, the 45,000-square-foot family clubhouse taking over 50 Columbia Heights, was pitched for a summer debut and is now signing up founding-member interest ahead of opening. The promise is a modern country club for families: dedicated kids’ floors with supervised childcare, play spaces and classes, plus a work lounge, fitness center, spa and several dining rooms for the grown-ups.
First Class Form | Greenpoint | Opening September 8
A new Pilates and sculpt studio opens at 38 Franklin Street, on the second floor, with heated mat sculpt classes and small-group reformer sessions. Founding memberships are on sale now and the schedule is already live on the studio’s site, which lists September 8 as the opening day.
Palette Cleanser | Greenpoint | Opening soon
A mosaic and vase-painting studio is opening at 67 West Street, running workshops and private events. The programming skews grown-up for now — think a night out rather than a rainy Saturday with a four-year-old — but it is worth watching if your older kid is the crafting type.
Zara | Williamsburg | Coming soon
Zara is taking a large space at 184–192 Bedford Avenue. No opening date has been announced. Big-format retail has landed on Bedford before — Century Marketplace set the precedent — so the block is used to it by now.
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