Before ever moving to Red Hook’s Pier 11, Phoenix Beverages has already been reborn – on nearby Pier 7, this paper has learned. The city’s Economic Development Corporation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, American Stevedoring International, the container terminal that currently occupies Pier 7, and Phoenix have hammered out a bombshell deal that would bring the region’s largest beer distributor to Pier 7, according to information received by this paper.
“This will be good for everybody,” said a source familiar with the issue. “It will allow us to retain a significant employer in New York while providing more flexibility and the luxury of a little more time to drill down on issues with Pier 11.”
The EDC recently announced their intention to bring Long Island City-based Phoenix to Pier 11, a move said to bolster the region’s working waterfront. Venitia Lannon, a vice president with the EDC, recently told this paper that despite a growing neighborhood sentiment that Phoenix would be better suited at Pier 7, “There is no disconnect in our mind that Phoenix is going to Pier 11.”
Locals have blasted the increase in truck traffic that Phoenix’s move would bring. Pier 7, located closer to the highway and farther from residential homes, is seen as a more acceptable alternative.
It is unclear what the switch will mean for Pier 11. New York Water Taxi president Tom Fox – who has a partner the Manhattan real estate giant The Durst Organization – has been pushing a scheme that includes a dry dock marina, a man-made beach, and other amenities at the pier.
The Port Authority, which leases Pier 7 to ASI, and the EDC are scheduled to attend a meeting of the Economic/Waterfront Committee of Community Board 6 later this month.
