[title]
Red Hook’s cobblestones, crab shacks and warehouse art spaces have long given it the aura of a self-contained village within Brooklyn. It just topped our list of the coolest NYC neighborhoods for 2025, but now it’s facing a transformation that could alter its character for decades.
This week, a city-state task force voted to move forward on the Brooklyn Marine Terminal Vision Plan, a sweeping scheme to turn 122 acres of industrial waterfront along Red Hook and the Columbia Street Waterfront District into a mixed-use community with as many as 6,000 new homes, a rebuilt port and acres of new parks.
Supporters are calling it a once-in-a-generation investment. “Today, our city took a massive step towards the future,” Mayor Eric Adams said after Monday’s vote, pitching the project as a way to unlock “opportunity for generations to come.” Borough President Antonio Reynoso, initially a skeptic, changed his stance to support after negotiators reduced the housing count from 12,000 to 6,000 units and added more space for industry and oversight. “This is more of a proposal than it is an actual plan,” Reynoso cautioned during an appearance on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show, promising continued scrutiny.
If built as envisioned, the site would be carved into two districts: BMT North, with most of the housing and a new destination park linked to Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Atlantic Basin, anchored by a new cruise terminal, hotel and industrial hub. Building heights could reach 425 feet near Pier 7, though Atlantic Basin tops out at 325 feet. At least 40% of the housing is slated to be permanently affordable, with 200 apartments reserved for current NYCHA residents in Red Hook.
The plan also involves significant port upgrades, including a 60-acre all-electric terminal, part of the city’s “Blue Highways” initiative to shift freight transportation from trucks to water. That means barges shuttling containers to Hunts Point, fewer semis rattling down Van Brunt Street and a cleaner waterfront.
Not everyone’s sold. Tenant activist John Leyva blasted the approval as rushed: “This is the last working waterfront in Brooklyn. They rushed this through,” he told Gothamist. Critics worry about displacement, traffic in a transit-starved pocket of the borough and whether affordable housing promises will actually be kept.
Even with the green light, don’t expect towers tomorrow. The environmental review and permitting could stretch a decade. For now, Red Hook sits in a paradox: crowned New York’s coolest neighborhood, even as bulldozers and blueprints line up to rewrite its future.