Industrial Space
April 25, 2008
Red Hook Stevedores Get a 10-Year Lease
It's official: The Port Authority and American Stevedoring Inc. have agreed to a $41 million, 10-year lease that will allow the stevedores to continue operating Piers 7 through 10 in Red Hook. The deal means the city's plans to redevelop the piers with housing and restaurants is kaput. “We saved the Brooklyn port,” Congressman Jerrold L. Nadler told the Times. “This is a great day for jobs in Brooklyn and for the future of maritime commerce on this side of the river. No one can turn it into a condo anymore.”
Lease Ends Uncertainty for Red Hook Cargo Docks [NY Times]
Red Hook Dock Union Triumphs [NY Post]
Red Hook Containerport to Stay [Brownstoner]
Photo by lj lindhurst.
April 21, 2008
W'Burg Warehouse On Market Again, for Lofts or Hotel?
That giant, early 1900s warehouse at 65 Hope Street, on the corner of Havemeyer, is on the market again—this time listed with Massey Knakal for $33 million with approved plans "to be converted into 92 residential condominiums and eleven parking spaces." In 2006, it sold for $26 million, and in 2005 it sold for $14 million. According to the listing, "The approved plans include amenities such as a gym, children's play room, theatre room, and personal storage spaces. The commercial zoning designation also allows and opportunity for a hotel conversion." At this rate, someone could buy it and put it back on the market again next year for $45 million!
Hope Street Bohemoth Sells for $26 Million [Brownstoner]
53-65 Hope Street Sells for $14 Million [Real Estate Weekly]
April 16, 2008
Guard Starts Talks 'To Come Up With Alternatives' For Row
The Army National Guard held its first consulting meeting yesterday on the transfer of the Admiral's Row houses to the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation. National Guard spokesman Rick Breitenfeldt said more than 30 groups were represented. "We have groups that want to save the buildings and we have groups that want to demolish the buildings and build a supermarket," he said. Four or five meetings are expected to follow "to really come up with a list of alternatives ... like things that can be done with the property." He declined to elaborate on each group's stance, but said, unsurprisingly, "I did hear in the meeting from a lot of city [officials] that, 'If we're required to restore and fix up these buildings, the city isn't prepared to put any money behind doing that, nor is the State of New York ... so please look at funding it through private sources." The city expected to obtain the properties under a previous agreement that allowed them to tear the homes down. A parking lot and light industrial space is also planned.
But alas, it looks like the National Guard's sentiments have a decent chance of changing since that 1996 agreement. They released a report last year estimating the 10 quarters, some more dilapidated than others, could be restored for (an amended) $19.6 million or rebuilt for $24.9 million, acknowledging those estimates still assumed the buildings would be reused as homes, and excluded the cost of abatement and conversion to commercial use. The long report—now available on the National Guard's new Admiral's Row website—determined the quarters retained enough structural integrity to make them eligible for the state and national registers of historic places. The state's preservation specialist issued a letter of concurrence; that the old agreement fails to address the new findings, basically rendering it moot. "We hope that appropriate alternatives will be considered including adaptive reuse and rehabilitation of the historic building and the site (including walls, fences and landscape features). We are not opposed to the redevelopment of the site," it read, "but it is critical that the alternatives analysis seriously consider how these nationally significant buildings can be creatively incorporated into the overall plan." Conveniently, nearby Pratt architecture students came up with just that. Some have suggested Fairway Market in Red Hook, which occupies the ground floor of a large old industrial building, is proof that these homes could also be refashioned into a market. Navy Yard Development Corporation president Andrew Kimball has said he'd like to bring something like Fairway to this supermarket-starved end of town—in the ground floor of a new industrial building—but he's not willing to budget stringing together a bunch of loose, dilapidated houses. As a side note, the quaint six-acre property also has tennis courts and a tennis house with rules still posted, a park, and a timber shed.
As the cliche goes, beauty (and worth) is in the eye of the beholder. So, here's one particularly amazing photo set to judge for yourself.
Admiral's Row website [National Guard]
Pratt Professors Seek To Reconcile Competing Plans for Admiral's Row [Brooklyn Eagle]
Officers’ Row Supermarket Not Happening Anytime Soon [Brownstoner]
Admiral's Row fixup to cost $20M [Daily News]
Photo by incandenza.
August 29, 2007
Boom Times at the Navy Yard
The Navy Yard is in the midst of “a renaissance,” according to an article in today’s Times, as firms plan expansions and clamor for space at the industrial hub. B&H is developing a multistory building on the water, while Steiner Studios is revamping a 289,000-square-foot building; both projects are going to cost around $50 million. The revitalization of the industrial park comes as the Bloomberg administration has already pumped more than $30 million into upgrading it, with the city planning to invest another $180 million in structural repairs over the next three years. That investment has been paying off too: Net cash flow at the Navy Yard Development Corporation has gone from $700,000 to $5,500,000 since 2001. Some say the Navy Yard’s success is mostly linked to the diminishing supply of industrial space elsewhere in the city. “Every five years, the city is losing approximately 15 percent of its industrial space, because it is being converted into residences, offices, retail,” said John G. J. Ritter, an executive vice president of Sholom & Zuckerbrot, a commercial real estate brokerage. In light of the Navy Yard’s changing fortunes, does it make sense that the city continues to charge forward with plans to transform other industrial-use zones—Gowanus springs immediately to mind—into residential areas?
Brooklyn Navy Yard Once Again Is Booming [NY Times]
Photo from brooklynnavyyard.org