Quinn calls for development of Sunset Park waterfront

February 12, 2013 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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The Sunset Park waterfront would undergo a re-development similar to the renaissance of the Brooklyn Navy Yard under a plan Council Speaker Christine Quinn outlined in her State of the City Address on Feb.11.

“Look at Sunset Park. It contains nearly 9 million square feet of city-controlled industrial space at The Brooklyn Army Terminal, Bush Terminal, and the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. And much of it remains underutilized. There’s 1 million square feet of completely undeveloped space at the Army Terminal alone,” Quinn said in her speech, delivered at City Hall.

“To maximize all that potential, I propose we steal a page from the Brooklyn Navy Yard,” Quinn, a Democratic mayoral hopeful, said.

Calling the Brooklyn Navy Yard, “a shining example of what the city can do with underused land,” Quinn said the city should create a development corporation for the Sunset Park waterfront just as the city created a development corporation for the Navy Yard.

A Sunset Park waterfront development corporation “will be dedicated to increasing jobs at each site by bringing in new businesses and retaining the ones that are there. It will leverage investment opportunities, provide on-site job training, and create a campus environment to attract the rapidly growing innovation economy of manufacturers and tech companies in Brooklyn,” Quinn said.

“The city created an independent nonprofit development corporation, and gave them control over the Navy Yard’s revenue. This allowed them to better invest in infrastructure, and other improvements to the facility. Now the Navy Yard is thriving once again, employing 6,000 New Yorkers in good middle class jobs and creating billions of dollars in economic activity for the city,” said Quinn, who mentioned that her father Jack was briefly stationed there during World War II.

“By fully utilizing all of these industrial spaces, we’ll bring more than 2,000 new jobs to Sunset Park. We’ll prioritize hiring local workers for the jobs we create. And we’ll build out from these city properties, to activate other unused space throughout the neighborhood,” Quinn said.

The speaker’s plans were praised by Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez.

(D-Sunset Park-Red Hook), who said she can’t wait for the work to start.

“Sunset Park has traditionally been a walk-to-work community and throughout my time as Chair of Community Board Seven and council member for District 38, I have endeavored to revitalize

our working waterfront. I look forward to working with Speaker Quinn, my colleague, Council Member Karen Koslowitz, and the Economic Development Corporation to fully develop the ‘Keeping Opportunities Close to Home’ strategy to bring thousands of jobs to the Sunset Park waterfront,” Gonzalez said.

“I am pleased the speaker recognizes the potential that exists here both in terms of desirable space with waterfront access and an abundant available workforce,” Gonzalez said.