Garment manufacturing hub also planned at industrial complex
A new film and TV studio and a renovation of the deteriorated Pier 6 are in the works for the North Campus of Bush Terminal, a representative of the city’s Economic Development Corp. said at a Zoom meeting of Community Board 7 on Monday.
Julie Stein, senior vice president of EDC, gave the presentation on the new developments: the lease to Eastern Effects, which already owns a sound stage facility in Gowanus, for the film and television studio, and the Pier 6 project.
The pier and the film and TV studio will both be part of the Bush Terminal’s Made in NY Campus, described as “the city’s $136 million investment to create a center for fashion, film, and television in Sunset Park’s Bush Terminal,”
Eastern Effects Inc. is a Brooklyn-based company that runs TV, film and media production studio facilities and a lighting/grip equipment rental business.
According to Stein, the city originally exercised eminent domain to acquire the property where Eastern Effects’ Gowanus studio production facility is currently located.
“They are great neighbors,” she said. The lease at the Bush Terminal is for 20 years.
As for Pier 6, “The idea would be to rehab this pier as a public amenity similar to how Pier 4 is one at Brooklyn Army Terminal,” she said. “We have a lot of work to do with the public on some of the things folks desire to see on that public edge as well as our designer to talk about what is feasible. [It’s] step zero so far, but we are really looking forward to this project.”
The rehabilitated pier will contain a mixture of public walkway access, maritime uses and public parking. A scoping process with opportunities for public input will begin this year.
The rest of the North Campus project components include doing major renovations to create a 211,000-square-foot garment manufacturing hub and upgrading industrial space in a 160,000-square-foot building.
“We were hoping to be further along with construction, but had to stop due to COVID restrictions. We are back into construction,” said Stein.
The EDC plans to create pedestrian-friendly streetscape improvements and new plaza space, including improvements to the 43rd Street corridor within the campus and visitor access to Bush Terminal Piers Park.
The garment manufacturing hub will include a research and development center, an innovation laboratory and a business accelerator for advanced clothing manufacturing, material technology and textile innovation. It will also provide training for at least 100 garment-sector workers, many of whom will be local, each year.
In the public realm, the area will have streetscape upgrades, waterfront and pedestrian areas between the cafe building and administration building.
“We are reconfiguring where the vehicular traffic is going to go,” she said. “There’s going to be more public plaza space, and we are really excited about that.”
After being halted by the COVID pandemic, the projects resumed in July 2020. The garment hub is now expected to be finished by 2022.
The public-realm design process and the permitting process are now underway. Construction is expected to start in July 2021, with a possible completion date of August 2022.
Truck gets stuck in sinkhole 
Young artists score Easter contest awards