When Albert Laboz visited Fulton Street with his mother in the 1960s, Downtown Brooklyn was still a retail mecca, drawing shoppers from across the borough. The famous department store Abraham & Straus anchored the corridor, though its traditional middle-class clientele was already beginning to decamp to the suburbs. Today, the aging midrises along Fulton are home to sneaker shops, discount retailers, cellphone stores and fast-food joints, many tucked behind grimy facades. But Laboz’s memories of the old Fulton Street aren’t all nostalgic. “I hated going there,” said Laboz, who founded United American Land with his brothers and is now one […]

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