Brooklyn Navy Yard unveils plans for big developments

With the largest expansion at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (BNY) since World War II underway, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and Navy Yard CEO David Ehrenberg hosted a presentation on Monday, June 8 outlining development plans for both the Yard’s Green Manufacturing Center and Building 77 – two projects slated for completion before the end of 2016 and that, combined, will bring over 3,000 permanent jobs to Brooklyn.

Calling it a renaissance, BNY’s mission was to secure anchor tenants for both spaces, fund building improvements for adaptive reuse, and create permanent positions.

For BLDG 77 – a one-million-square-foot facility – BNY secured $140 million in funding for the full modernization of systems, with $81.8 million coming from the city and $56 million made available through private funding. According to BNY, 3,000 permanent jobs will follow the expansion and the 17-story building’s anchor tenant will be Shiel Medical Laboratory led by CEO Jack Basch.

“This building will finally allow us to get ahead of the curve,” said Ehrenberg. “We have been 100 percent full for 10 years; I like to say we’re the only landlord in the city who is quite upset by the fact that we are full. With a million square feet being added to our inventory, we will finally be able to get ahead of that and start bringing more and more companies here to the yard.”

Additionally, with $60 million in adaptive reuse funding and 250,000 square feet, BNY will turn its former machine shop building into the Green Manufacturing Center, a commercial space that will bring 800 jobs and will be anchored by Cyre Precision, a combat and field apparel manufacturer, and New Lab, a high-tech design and prototyping center.

“The Brooklyn Navy Yard was the first to recognize the tremendous potential in this borough, and they led the way for others by taking an old, rundown shipyard and creating one of the best manufacturing and commercial complexes in New York,” said Brooklyn Chamber President and CEO Carlo Scissura. “Our innovation economy has been a driving force behind the rebirth of Brooklyn, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard helped spark the renaissance – and now they are taking it to the next level with their plans for the Green Manufacturing Center and Building 77. Not only will these projects create hundreds of jobs, but they will provide a boost to Brooklyn’s already strong maker community and create much-needed real estate for our industrial manufacturing sector.”

“As a population who comes to Brooklyn, who lives in Brooklyn, perhaps visits Brooklyn, we are trying to create a community that is a live, work, play community,” added Deputy Borough President Diana Reyna. “We have to afford to stay here by having these jobs and we have to protect these jobs in order to afford to live here. We also want to make sure that we are building our infrastructure. It was a borough that was starving and today it starves no more.”

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