Former brownfield site to be home to IndyCar firm

August 23, 2012 Compiled by Linda Collins Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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A racecar engine design company will open a new facility on a former brownfield site in Brooklyn, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced this week.

The property, at 105 Metropolitan Ave. in Williamsburg, remained vacant for 27 years until it was enrolled in the city’s Brownfield Cleanup Program last February. Cleanup is expected to be completed at the end of this summer, with development and construction to follow. Ayton Performance is expected to open next summer and continue its work designing racecar engines and consulting with manufacturers like Porsche, Honda and GM.

Bloomberg was joined in making the announcement by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz; Venetia Lannon, regional director of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation; Daniel Walsh, director of the Office of Environmental Remediation; and Ethan Bregman, owner and engineer of Ayton.

Bloomberg also said that the cleanup Program has approved its 50th project since it launched as part of PlaNYC in 2011. The program is the first municipal brownfield cleanup program in the country and has enrolled 120 tax lots that have been vacant for an average of 16 years. Cleanup on these properties will pave the way for $1.5 billion in new capital construction that will add approximately 4.8 million square feet of new development, including 1.1 million square feet of new retail, commercial, industrial and office space and 966 units of affordable housing.

“New York City is known as a global leader in fields ranging from fashion and finance and tourism to tech start-ups and bio-sciences to film and TV production. Now we can add the design of IndyCar race engines to the growing list of things that are made In New York,” Bloomberg said. “The New York City Brownfield Cleanup Program targets blighted and vacant sites, encouraging development that brings new jobs and other improvements to help neighborhoods and our economy grow.”

Noting that Brooklyn is “firing on all cylinders,” Markowitz said, “Innovative companies like Ayton Performance are breathing new life into our borough’s historic manufacturing legacy. When this facility is completed, we’ll have even more jobs — good jobs where Brooklynites can work with their hands.”