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The push to redevelop Sunset Park’s waterfront industrial spaces into a thriving manufacturing center for artisanal goods along the lines of the Navy Yard continues. The de Blasio administration has pledged to invest $100,000,000 into making over 500,000 square feet of the city-owned Brooklyn Army Terminal, pictured above, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Meanwhile, at nearby Industry City, formerly Bush Terminal, the complex’s new development partners (including the former developers of Chelsea Market) have recently invested $100,000,000 into renovations and signed several deals for a total of 750 jobs there, including one with Li-Lac Chocolates. At another site in the area, Liberty View Industrial Plaza, fashion incubator Manufacture New York has leased 160,000 square feet.

But various problems in the area need attention, including pothole-strewn roads, aging sewer lines and poor air quality. Also, the waterfront areas are cut off from Sunset Park’s residential areas by the Gowanus Expressway. After a year-long delay, the city’s Economic Development Corp. hopes to open a waterfront park in about a month. It will be scaled down from earlier plans and will not include a children’s playground, second entrance or environmental center.

The area will be a testing ground for whether Brooklyn’s small-manufacuturing industry “is poised to become more than a niche part of the city’s economy,” said the story. To put it in perspective: In 2012, food manufacturing represented 15,000 jobs whereas construction employed more than 110,000. But food manufacturing is growing quickly as other areas, such as fashion, decline. Do you think investment in the area will pay off?

Brooklyn’s Sunset Park Is Hefty Bet for Developers, New York City [WSJ]
Photo by Jim Henderson for Wikipedia


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