Sunset Park

De Blasio promises to create 1,500 jobs in Sunset Park

Wants neighborhood to be hub for food, fashion, film, TV industries

February 14, 2017 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Mayor Bill de Blasio is seeking to create 40,000 jobs over the next four years, including 1,500 in Sunset Park. AP Photo/Hans Pennink
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Mayor Bill de Blasio devoted a portion of his State of the City address on Monday to Sunset Park, promising to bring at least 1,500 jobs to the community by turning the neighborhood into a hub for the food, fashion, film and TV industries by the year 2020.

“This is going to be the new center of garment manufacturing, a new hub of our great fashion industry here in our city, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and a new film and TV studio combined — 1,500 permanent jobs will be created,” the mayor said, according to a transcript of the speech he delivered at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

The mayor said his goal is to develop an industry hub that will become the city’s “Made in N.Y. Campus.”

The Sunset Park proposal is part of an ambitious plan by de Blasio, who is running for re-election in November, to create 100,000 jobs over the next 10 years, with 40,000 of those positions being created within the next four years.

“We hope the private sector does a lot of other things that will increase the number of good jobs in the city. Our goal over the next 10 years is to create 100,000 more permanent, good-paying jobs in New York City. ‘What’s a good job?’ you might ask. A good job to me has to pay at least $50,000 a year,” de Blasio said.

The city is focusing on the food, fashion, film, TV and technology industries because these industries are fostering job growth, according to de Blasio.

Job creation is part of a larger goal to make the city a more affordable place to live, according to de Blasio, who said New York is facing an affordability crisis.

“This affordability crisis threatens who we are, threatens the very soul of this city,” the mayor said.

Part of the problem is that while the average rent increased 22 percent from 1990 to 2014, wages only went up one percent, according to the mayor, who said his administration has worked to create affordable housing units.

“We have to now focus on the other half of the equation: We have to drive up incomes,” he said.

Renee Giordano, executive director of the Sunset Park Business Improvement District (BID), said that while the mayor’s idea sounded good, she was reserving judgment.

“I’m all for something that is going to bring jobs to our community, but I would need to learn more about what the mayor has in mind,” Giordano told the Brooklyn Eagle on Tuesday.

For instance, Giordano said wanted to know what types of jobs are coming and whether Sunset Park residents will be filling any of those positions. “It would be nice if we had jobs, good-paying jobs, here. I would be in favor of it if it isn’t going to hurt the people who live here,” she said.

John Brennan, associate director of Marcus & Millichap, said de Blasio’s plan could have a positive effect on Sunset Park’s real estate market.

“I think it has the potential to continue the upward trend we’re seeing. The neighborhood already has all the fundamentals,” Brennan said, adding that he has seen a change in Sunset Park’s demographics over the past 18 months as more young people have moved in.

With the city creating 1,500 new jobs, “there will be a demand for more housing units,” Brennan said. “People want to live near where they work,” he told the Eagle.

The mayor’s plan could also spur construction in Sunset Park as demand for housing increases, Brennan said.

 

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