The city’s plan to redevelop a 122-acre stretch of Brooklyn waterfront into a new neighborhood has hit a familiar hitch: local opposition to new housing development.
The Economic Development Corp. has floated a $3.1 billion plan that would erect up to 8,200 new apartments (including more than 2,600 for lower-income tenants) on part of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which spans Pier 7 in Cobble Hill to Pier 12 in Red Hook. EDC says that selling land to housing developers will allow the Adams administration to help pay for up to $1.75 billion in modern port infrastructure on 60 acres of the terminal so that the city can move more goods by barge instead of by truck, reducing congestion and air pollution. The shape of the port is so dire that port officials in 2023 had to take two of the seven piers out of commission due to decaying timber beams.
Maritime freight officials themselves and some local residents are supportive of the plan, and say that housing makes sense for the site because it is a desirable Brooklyn location a stone’s throw away from Manhattan with ferry access and sought-after waterfront views.
But some elected officials and community groups are pushing back on the market rate housing component, arguing that more of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal should be maintained for industrial uses to create jobs in the neighborhood. They want the government to foot more of the cost of revitalizing the terminal, rather than relying on private developers eager to build units with waterfront views. These concerns have, in part, led EDC to postpone a vote on the project by a 28 member city-appointed task force, from April 11 to sometime later this month, at the earliest.
Leaders in the region’s maritime freight industry say they are on board with EDC’s blueprint for the site and fear that project delays could rattle shippers’ confidence in the city and spur companies to move their operations elsewhere.
“We recognize that there has to be a balance and there needs to be a way to pay for this. So, that’s why we believe that we can live with the 60 acres going forward as a compromise, really, and that it will attract more freight,” said John Nardi, president of the Shipping Association of New York and New Jersey. “The thing with a project like this is you’re not going to make everybody 100% happy.”
Some elected officials on the task force and who represent the surrounding area are not yet sold. City Council member Alexa Avilés, who serves as vice chair of the task force, argues that the plan has too much market rate housing.
“We’re seeing luxury housing on public land is what is going to actually subsidize this work, and that’s just an unacceptable proposition for us,” said Avilés, who wants the city and state to kick in more funds to finance the project instead of relying so heavily on the real estate industry to fund the project, at a recent hearing. “I still find the investments in this quite paltry compared to not only its economic importance for our surrounding community but for the city entirely.”
Mike Racioppo, another task force member and the district manager of Brooklyn Community Board 6, which represents the area, said he feels the same. “The city and the state need to put their money where their mouth is,” said Racioppo.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, for his part, believes the city should devote more space and resources at the terminal to growing waterfront industry (about half of it is currently used for marine freight). Two piers, Piers 9A and 9B adjacent to Cobble Hill, are in poor condition and have been out of commission since 2023. A pair of cranes at the Red Hook Container Terminal on Pier 10 are also defunct and sitting idle.
“In one of the few places where we can expand manufacturing, the city wants to build housing,” said Reynoso, who considers himself generally pro-housing and voted for the City of Yes zoning changes. “But in this one place, it’s the city having a very narrow idea of how and where they can build their housing,” he said.
The site landed in city hands last year, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey agreed to trade the Adams Administration the Brooklyn Marine Terminal for the city’s Howland Hook Marine Terminal in Staten Island. EDC officials have since crafted a development blueprint for the site, and are seeking approval for it not through the typical city public review process that requires a City Council vote, but through a state project plan that sidesteps local planning laws.
EDC president and CEO Andrew Kimball says the agency’s proposal for the site is focused on modernizing the marine terminal’s dilapidated infrastructure, such as with new cranes and piers, and leveraging the site’s land to do so. EDC expects it will cost up to $1.75 billion to redevelop the site’s port, including $750 million just to modernize dilapidated cargo cranes. To date, the city and state have committed $95 million for pier upgrades, an electrified crane and to build cold storage. The city has also secured a $164 million federal grant, which is eligible for city matching funds, for the redevelopment.
The bulk of the cash needed to redevelop and sustain the site, however, will come from revenue generated by developers purchasing lots to erect housing and commercial space, according to Kimball. This mechanism enables the city to generate sorely needed housing, and other community benefits, as part of the project. New York City’s housing vacancy rate has plummeted to 1.4%, the lowest it’s been since 1968, and the number of new homes being built cannot keep up with the amount of people who want to live in the city. The city’s plan aims to chip away at that housing need while creating a lucrative way to generate revenue that’d be invested back into the project, said Kimball.
“So the project is paid for, right?” Kimball said in an interview. “This is obviously a spectacular location for housing, nobody can deny that, so we think that our numbers are very strong.”
If approved, the city’s preliminary plan would effectively construct a new neighborhood with a mix of residential, industrial and commercial uses. The plan calls for 8,200 apartments — 60% would be rentals and 40% would be condos — with 35% of all the units (roughly 2,695 apartments) reserved for tenants making 60% of the city’s area median income, which translates to no more than $83,880 for a household of three. At least 200 new apartments would be created for New York City Housing Authority residents, and the city would set up a fund of $250 million to invest in upgrades at nearby NYCHA complexes and to help lower-income tenants put down payments on apartments built at the terminal, according to EDC materials.
When it comes to freight, a 60 acre swath of the terminal would be transformed into a modern port to bolster the city’s ability to receive and send goods by water. Research commissioned by EDC suggests that the revitalized terminal could move up to 135,000 shipping containers per year — a 50% increase from its current levels. The city’s plan would also create 30 acres of public open space, 300,000 square feet of new commercial space, 5,000 feet of coastal flood protections, expanded ferry and bus service, and more. EDC estimates that the plan could generate $12 billion in economic impact for the region.
The sweeping vision has won over both presidents’ of tenant associations at the Red Hook Houses, a NYCHA complex just outside of the plan’s southern footprint.
“Gentrification and opposition to new housing developments have made it increasingly difficult for long-standing residents to secure permanent housing solutions,” wrote Karen Blondel, president of the Red Hook West Houses Residents Association, in an April 2 letter to the task force, obtained by Crain’s. “We have an opportunity to create a more equitable Red Hook and I hope we seize the moment.”
To date, the state has committed $15 million to the redevelopment. Kimball has said that city officials have pitched the state on kicking in nearly $200 million to help build the redevelopment — funds that could potentially be used to construct more lower-income apartments or other community benefits — but that state officials haven’t jumped at the idea.
Kassie White, a spokeswoman for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office described the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal as “a generational opportunity to revitalize the Brooklyn waterfront” but declined to say whether the state is considering dedicating additional funds to the port project, which benefits not just the city but the state at large with its shipping operation.
