Containerport Has
No Plans To Leave
By Sarah Ryley
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
RED HOOK — The city’s sweeping proposal to transform the Red Hook piers from a containerport to a port of call for luxury cruise liners and home base to a hodgepodge of other maritime uses is at a stalemate, according to sources.
Luxury housing, a hotel and another cruise ship terminal — once major components of the Economic Development Corporation’s (EDC) proposal — have already been delayed or dropped from the plan. Now, Brooklyn Brewery, the marina and a ferry connection could be the next casualties of the agency’s attempt to wrestle Piers 7 to 10 from containerport operator American Stevedoring, which has been unloading the region’s food, clothing and furniture there for more than a decade.
The latest snag came last month, when EDC officials said they would consider temporarily relocating beer distributor Phoenix Beverage to Pier 11 while awaiting the outcome of a federal court battle over Pier 7, now occupied by American Stevedoring’s warehousing subsidiary.
Not Big Enough for Both
Tom Fox, president of New York Water Taxi and a finalist in the EDC’s process of selecting a developer for the Atlantic Basin and Pier 11, said sharing the space with Phoenix Beverage would make his project unfeasible. A large portion of his proposal, submitted in partnership with The Durst Organization, would be located on Pier 11, including a new Water Taxi headquarters to accommodate the growing business, a dry dock, and a maritime maintenance and fueling center.
“It would be a devastating blow to New York Water Taxi not to be able to grow our business at Atlantic Basin,” said Fox. “It gives me great pause; it gives me concern for the future.
“It’s hard to understand how something like this can happen in the middle of a public process,” he said, referring to the EDC’s sudden push to lease Phoenix the pier after it had issued a request for proposals to developers in January and was nearing a final selection.
Phoenix Beverage Vice President John Crowley said he’s been in negotiations with the EDC and the Port Authority, which still controls Piers 7 to 10, to relocate his Queens-based company to Pier 7 for five years, two years before American Warehousing’s lease on that pier was up.
“[Pier 11] is actually not big enough, but we are looking at doing that as an interim step,” said Crowley. “Obviously, we would prefer to be at Pier 7, but because of lawsuits, apparently that is not going to happen at this time.”
Brooklyn Brewery Considers
Moving Elsewhere Instead
Steve Hindy, president of Brooklyn Brewery, said he’s been in negotiations to relocate to Pier 7 for three years, but is now considering moving to Gowanus, Bushwick or East Williamsburg. “American Stevedoring seems to have some politicians on their side, and it’s creating a stalemate,” said Hindy. “The project’s not moving; it’s not happening.”
Most notably, American Stevedoring has the support of Congressman Jerrold Nadler and Councilman David Yassky, who both have long histories of working on waterfront issues. But the containerport operator also has overwhelming support from the longshoremen’s and teamsters’ unions, industrial advocacy groups and several other members of the City Council who would have to approve the EDC’s sweeping makeover before the company could be evicted.
“There is such staunch opposition to making this change there,” said Matt Yates, director of operations for American Stevedoring, adding that the agency’s “ridiculous proposition” would result in a net loss of jobs and displace the infrastructure necessary for transporting “everything we use” across the region.
So far, the EDC is not admitting defeat.
“We believe that Phoenix Beverage is okay with Pier 11 on a temporary basis. This would not affect the overall plan for the piers or the [request for proposals] for Atlantic Basin, since the location there would be temporary,” said EDC spokeswoman Janel Patterson.
She said the agency is moving ahead with selecting a developer for the Atlantic Basin, “and when we designate, the developer would be aware that Pier 11 will be occupied temporarily. It will also benefit the city since when we designate, the permitting process will take time and we will have the pier occupied during that time.”
But for now, passengers of luxury cruise liners docking at Red Hook’s Pier 12 will still be greeted with cranes unloading massive containers from ships that have undoubtedly less posh sleeping quarters. And future tenants of another newcomer to the waterfront, One Brooklyn Bridge Park, the southern capstone of the Brooklyn Bridge Park, will have warehouses, not a beer garden, as a neighbor.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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