$46 Million invested in Brooklyn Navy Yard green industrial complex

May 22, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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Anchor tenant makes body armor, military uniforms

By Linda Collins

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN NAVY YARD — An estimated $46 million will be invested into creating a state-of-the-art green industrial complex at the Brooklyn Navy Yard by adaptively reusing three existing structures.

The new complex — in three former World War II-era Navy shipbuilding machine shops — will create close to 300 new permanent jobs and approximately 400 construction jobs, it was announced Monday. Image courtesy of Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp.

Making the announcement were Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and state and city elected officials.To be known as the Green Manufacturing Center, the complex is a NYC Regional Economic Development Council priority project in conjunction with the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC).

“This project is an example of how the Regional Council initiative is helping the state invest in a productive and sustainable innovation economy that will put New Yorkers back to work now and for years to come,” Cuomo said. “This is an eco-friendly investment that will create almost 300 new jobs while making space available for a successful company to produce the tools needed to keep the heroic members of our armed services safe.”

Said BNYDC President and CEO Andrew Kimball, “The Navy Yard has become a thriving hub of high-tech and clean-tech manufacturing. We are thrilled to get this project under way with the support of our partners at every level of government and to have two fantastic anchor tenants secured.”

Those two anchor tenants include Crye Precision, a designer and manufacturer of body armor and apparel for the U.S. military as well as federal and state law enforcement agencies that will be in 45,000 square feet; and Macro Sea, a facility that uses the latest in environmentally conscious processes and machinery that will lease more than 50,000 square feet for its New Lab.

The 300-acre Navy Yard currently houses more than 275 businesses employing 6,000 workers, up from 230 businesses and 3,600 workers in 2001, according to Kimball.

The development of the new Green Manufacturing Center continues the expansion underway at the Navy Yard, adding more than 1.8 million square feet of new space, over 2,500 new jobs and 30 green manufacturers over the next two years.

This major new investment will transform buildings 28, 123 and 128 into a 220,000- square-foot, multi-tenanted, LEED Silver-certified center.

Construction will begin this summer and will take approximately 18 months to complete, Kimball said.

According to Kimball, the New Lab has received interest from several universities and firms, including The Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design Innovation Lab; Rensselaer Polytechnic’s School of Architecture and Center for Architecture Science & Ecology; Columbia University’s Laboratory of Applied Building Science at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation; and Terreform ONE of Brooklyn, a nonprofit laboratory for scientists, artists, architects, students and others to explore and advance the larger framework of green design.

“The Brooklyn Navy Yard is an economic success story if there ever was one,” said Bloomberg. “This investment in green manufacturing is more great news for the Navy Yard and for New York City’s economy.”