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Tropicana, Atlantic City

Architect fan to Spitzer: Save the Admirals Row

By Dana Rubinstein
The Brooklyn Paper

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A local preservationist has appealed to Gov. Spitzer in a last-ditch effort to save the century-old mansions in the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Admirals Row, which will be demolished to make way for a supermarket.

“Admirals Row is mine and belongs to every citizen of the United States of America,” read an impassioned plea to Spitzer from Scott Witter, a local builder and the curator of Brooklyn’s Other Museum of Brooklyn (BOMB), a Wallabout arts institution.

“It appears that you are the only person who, with a stroke of your pen, can undo this madness and insure longevity for Admirals Row,” he continued.

The row comprises 10 dilapidated mansions built between 1858 and 1901 to house naval officers. Abandoned decades ago, the mansions are being transferred from the Army Corps of Engineers to the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, which will tear them down.

“The acquisition will allow for the construction of a 60,000-square-foot supermarket and a 150,000-square-foot industrial building, which will create a total of 500 new jobs,” said Andrew Kimball, the president and CEO of the corporation and a Park Slope resident.

“The supermarket will, for the first time, provide the surrounding community with fresh produce and other quality grocery items at affordable prices.”

Kimball has argued that the cost of preserving the homes — $30 million — is prohibitively high.

Spitzer’s office had not yet received the letter and could not comment.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper

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