More Big Box Shops for Red Hook
Joining Fairway and IKEA in Red Hook will be BJ’s Wholesale Club, says the Brooklyn Paper. Their new home will be the site of the former Revere Sugar Factory on Beard Street, currently used as an IKEA parking lot. The developer, Thor Equities, offered this statement: “Thor is committed to ensuring that whichever organization leases…
Joining Fairway and IKEA in Red Hook will be BJ’s Wholesale Club, says the Brooklyn Paper. Their new home will be the site of the former Revere Sugar Factory on Beard Street, currently used as an IKEA parking lot. The developer, Thor Equities, offered this statement: “Thor is committed to ensuring that whichever organization leases this property, it will fully augment the historic revitalization occurring today in Red Hook.” They haven’t admitted that BJ’s is the new tenant, but an insider at the Borough President’s office let the news slip. The Beep assured the potential use of the site would be subject to a public review. “While welcoming major retailers to our borough could bring economic vitality and much-needed jobs to previously underserved and underutilized areas, we must also be sure to ‘grow smart’ and preserve a neighborhood’s character, he said. This wouldn’t be Kings County’s first BJ’s. There’s another near Starrett CIty.
BJ’s on Tap for Red Hookers [Brooklyn Paper]
What’s Left at Revere Sugar. Photo by Lock.
Protect yourselves, GWH and Biff, for daring to express such opinions. Oh wait….he only attacks my opinions 🙂
NY is losing midsized supermarkets left and right and its not because of demand its they can’t afford the rent. if they need to be replaced with large box stores so be it. they bring jobs(mostly union or high enough paying with benefits to keep the unions out). More jobs than a brewery and one hell of better paying ones than most restaurants. IKEA has been a “good” neighbor so far and has solved the delivery problem with a courier.
The loss of the graving dock at the Todd New York Shipyards had to do with the fact that it was mostly not used and the space around it was in poor shape and environmentally a disaster.
Maybe they could fit in both the Brewery and the store….now that would be nice wouldn’t it.
Did any one know anyone who worked at Todd?
I don’t speak for anyone except myself. I’m frustrated that the spread of big-box continues to happen here, from a possible Costco on the Upper West Side to Target in East Harlem.
I can only speak for the misguided focus on these type of low-wage jobs as support for projects that, in the long term, have negative effects on wages and opportunity in this city.
Flatbushwacker: I think you can tell the difference between a department store that is woven into the fabric of the city and one that destroys it. We’re not talking about a department store with numerous entrances on several streets that harmonizes with its Midtown neighborhood. We’re talking about losing valuable waterfront property in Northern Brooklyn to be a parking lot and retail outlet. We let Ikea fill in a much needed dry dock to build a parking lot it doesn’t use. Jobs in ship repair are infinitely more valuable than those in retail (but enough about the jobs). I like the Fairway project because of its use of an old building, if it weren’t for the parking fields that surround it.
Biff;
No one said that they are a cure-all. However, given the fact that most of the Red Hook waterfront is currently a no-man’s land, and given that many poor and working-class folks in our city DO like places mike BJ’s (just go to the one in East NY on any given weekend to see proof of that) why can’t room be made for some of them? We live in a big city – why can’t there be room for all types of retail establishments, and let the poeple themselves decide which they prefer?
No, hiring all the underprivileged as nannies, mannies, and any other dirty jobs we don’t wish to do for minimum wage, not paying into SS, and not providing them bennies is the answer. It at least absolves us of that guilt we feel for not doing more.
Yes, large scale retail outlets are the answer to all our troubles. If only we could have a WalMart on every corner wedged between an Applebee’s and 7-Eleven. What a dream city this would be…
“Large-scale retail outlets are permanently scarring the urban fabric of this city”
Right. And they have been ever since A.T. Stewart opened the world’s first department store at Broadway and Chambers Street over 160 years ago.
If neighborhood retail could outlast A&S, Alexander’s, Gimbel’s, Korvette’s, Kresge’s, etc., etc., I really don’t think they need to worry about BJ’s.
But I suspect you’re right that the organized labor bosses will be able to buy or bully enough council members to prevent this from happening.
GWH: Maybe you could ask the people in the Red Hook projects who can and will probably fill these jobs (which I assume come with benefits) how they feel about these new big box stores coming in or were they not “The People” you are referring to with respect to being entreprenuial about owning something vs. working for a conglomorate? Corner Bodegas aside, you weren’t really speaking for the underprivileged people in Red HooK. It’s not like they are going to open some wine and cheese bar for you to patronize and make a killing on creating atmosphere for you. Maybe it’s just me, but if I was in there shoes and I had an opportunity to work for a large corporation with even a remote chace to move up one or two levels to supervisory positions vs. wiping farts of stools for some “Entreprenuer” paying me minimum wage with no bennies, guess what, I’ll take the Ikea job.
Ok, thanks for the response. I too am vehemently opposed to the mall-ification of NYC.