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Just as Brownstone Brooklyn is characterized by a collection of strongly knit neighborhoods, the borough's business community operates a lot like the merchants, bankers and professionals who line Main Street in some small town in the Midwest.
Nowhere is that more true than in downtown Brooklyn, only a stone's throw from affluent Brooklyn Heights. Here, values like neighborliness, civic pride and a deep respect for history make one wonder whether brash and fast-track Manhattan is really only a subway stop away.
But with large-scale commercial projects like Metrotech under way, change is clearly coming to downtown Brooklyn, and old-line Brooklyn businesses, like Cullen & Dykman, the borough's largest law firm say they're ready to run with it.
Three years ago the firm renewed the lease on its historic Montague Street offices through the year 2007, and Cullen & Dykman's partners say they expect to see the 109-attorney firm grow and evolve along with the rest of Brooklyn's commercial sector.
Prepared to be flexible
"I think we've been flexible enough in the last 140 years to meet the needs of our clients," says Managing Partner F. Peter O'Hara. As a result, he says, Cullen & Dykman is fully prepared to continue changing in response to the growth in small- and mid-sized office-based businesses that he expects to see in Brooklyn over the next five to 10 years. "We've made a commitment to the future in Brooklyn," he adds.
In many ways, the changing patterns of Brooklyn's business development are reflected in the oversized mahogany and glass phone...