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The Brooklyn coastline is about to get all glammed up: Bloomberg reports that New York City just took control of 122 acres of rugged land from the southern edge of Brooklyn Bridge Park down to Red Hook. Authorities plan to redevelop the area into "housing, retail, green space and a modern, environmentally friendly port."
The news is a pretty big deal: until now controlled by both the city and the Port Authority, the area will now be under the complete purview of the city and state, a fact that will hopefully make it easier to actually redevelop the decrepit zone. As part of the deal, the city will also give the Port Authority operational control of a 225-acre portion of Staten Island's Howland Hook Marine Terminal.
During an official press conference, Mayor Eric Adams announced a whopping $80 million investment to repair Piers 7, 8 and 10 by the Brooklyn Martine Terminal and a $15 million investment to fund a new electrified container crane for operations on site.
"For 20 years, skeptics thought this deal couldn’t get done, but our administration prioritized the ‘Harbor of the Future’ and now we have the potential to create thousands of new jobs, generate billions in economic impact, and create a neighborhood on our shoreline that truly displays the promise of New York City," said Mayor Adams in an official statement, specifically mentioning his initiative that seeks to transform the city's watrfront. "By assuming control of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Red Hook in our city government’s largest real estate transaction in recent memory, our administration is demonstrating that we will continue to deliver big wins for New Yorkers, day after day."
The city has already applied for over $350 million in federal grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation to complete the revamp of the terminal into a more modern facility that could handle low-carbon freight movements. Even more specifically, the requests mention the need to replace Piers 9a and 9b, which are in horrible conditions at the moment.
The developments follow years of stalled projects that never came to fruition. Here's to hoping things will finally move forward.