Brooklyn Brewery Chief Bemoans Lack of Industrial Space
The lack of affordable industrial space in some sections of Brooklyn is impeding one local business’s expansion. Brooklyn Brewery owner Steve Hindy, who started leasing a property on North 11th Street in Williamsburg 12 years ago, tells the Times that his quest to find a bigger space for the brewery in places like Red Hook…
The lack of affordable industrial space in some sections of Brooklyn is impeding one local business’s expansion. Brooklyn Brewery owner Steve Hindy, who started leasing a property on North 11th Street in Williamsburg 12 years ago, tells the Times that his quest to find a bigger space for the brewery in places like Red Hook and Gowanus has been fruitless, and he feels burned by the current administration. Hindy supported the 2005 rezoning of Williamsburg and Greenpoint but now thinks the city didn’t retain enough manufacturing space in the neighborhoods; Hindy’s plan to move the brewery to a pier in the Red Hook container port, meanwhile, fell through after the Port Authority decided to renew American Stevedoring’s lease for the pier. We are the Brooklyn Brewery, and we want to be in Brooklyn, says Hindy. If we can’t find a place, then who can? We’re about as perfect an example of light manufacturing as you can get. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fewer than 100,000 manufacturing jobs remain in the city.
Double Edge to Brooklyn’s Success [NY Times]
Photo by wallyg.
Sunset Park waterfront anyone?
There’s been tons of work to maintain a working waterfront south of 20th Street all the way to the 68th St. Piers.
Bush terminal, all the Federal Buildings in the 40’s and then of course the redevelopment of the 43rd St. Pier by DDC and Parks into a community park for the Sunset Park community. While the stroll from the nearest R train to the water is currently not stellar, UPROSE is planning an extension of the green-way through Greenwood Heights south to Sunset Park along 3rd Ave through Community Board 7’s district.
Could work? (only if they’d just bury the damn Gowanus Expressway for christsakes)
Then again, it could turn the industrial area of SSP into another Billyburgh if City Planning gets wind of any sort of positive development in the area. Suddenly manufacturing is rezoned into swaths of near-waterfront residential? Just saying.
Remember what got Mr. Hindy into this problem to begin with…
A disappointing story….I don’t know much about American Stevedoring, but I certainly support retaining segments of a working waterfront. It’s baffling that Brooklyn Brewery simply cannot find industrial space in the borough; I personally invite them to open on Atlantic Ave hard by Prospect Heights….a much, much better option than a hole in the ground and project that brownstone Brooklyn loathes.
Bushwick used to be the beer making center of Brooklyn, and the remains of brewmeister mansions still line Bushwick Ave. If I remember correctly, there still are some old brewery buildings in the area. I think I remember an old post here linking to Forgotten NY, or another great site like that.
I’m sure there is space, as fsrq mentions, in less tony parts of the borough. It would be great to keep some manufacturing here in Bklyn.
I grew up upstate, where Utica’s brewing tradition was just as strong as Bushwick’s used to be. I think Schlitz was the largest local brewery back in the 60’s – 70’s. I have no idea if they still exist.
Not only has the rezoning been bad for business, the community warned them about these problems and they were ignored. When the Brooklyn Downtown rezoning took place the community warned that the “back office space” need was a myth(the exact quote was it was a boat that sailed), but the powers that be ignored the community. Now the powers that be would like to do away with community boards so they don’t have to hear from the community. the same thing was true for the pier 6-12 rezoning. It was clear the wanted to push out American Stevedores(800 high paying jobs) for more cruise terminals(so far the Red Hook Cruise terminal has made less than 20 full time jobs and a small number of poorly paid part time jobs). So the numbers for Brooklyn Brewery and its jobs didn’t justify pushing American Stevedores out. In the past these companies would have gone to Greenpoint/Williamsburg but rezoning there has opened up the waterfront to luxury housing and pushed out the 3 dollar per square foot companies. there is a reason why these companies can’t afford NY rents but then their few employees in large spaces don’t justify the subsidy needed to keep them here….
No – its all hotels now….
I’d be very surprised if he couldn’t find something affordable in the Gowanus area. No?
I feel bad for Hindy….to a point.
The reality is that his brewery isn’t purely ‘light manufacturing” because his location has/needs a marketing/retail component [Beer Garden, Tours, etc]. The bulk of Brooklyn beer is actually brewed and bottled in Utica NY – only the specialty brews are produced here in Brooklyn.
Therefore, the gentrification mentioned in the article is more than a by-product of his (and many others success), it is essential to the whole business.
That being said – the city should do more to help him and he also ought to consider bringing all his brew operations to NYC for leverage(how about less gentrified Brooklyn or the Bronx) even if it requires a separate location from the more retail/marketing aspect of his operation.
Personally as much as I want to support Brooklyn Beer (and I drink alot of beer) I find Brooklyn Lager to be too heavy.
Ouch. More moderately, I recall being surprised at how supportive Steve was of a rezoning that wasn’t good for light industrial companies like his.
Perhaps next time there is a rezoning that totally fucks local residents and businesses, Hindy won’t be such a booster.