The Army isn’t the Navy, but it sure sunk the latest effort by preservationists
to block Ikea’s plans for a waterfront mega-store in Red Hook.
The Army Corps of Engineers determined that it does not want to take back
an Ikea-owned dock at the end of Beard Street on which the Swedish furniture
giant wants to build a parking lot.
Preservationists had hoped the Army Corps, a federal agency that repairs
maritime infrastructure, would restore the concrete-and-iron dock to be
used to repair ships. They argue that Ikea could build an adjacent parking
lot for its first Brooklyn store without destroying the still-functioning
dock, which the company bought from Todd Shipyard in 2005.
“The Corps said that it was not in their jurisdiction to protect
historic maritime resources that have served New York harbor for generations,
or good jobs on Brooklyn’s working waterfront,” Brian Connolly
of the Municipal Art Society said in a statement last week. “We believe
that it is their responsibility to do so. The Corps is headed in
the wrong direction here, and this issue is not closed,”
The Army Corps is now expected next week to approve one of the final permits
Ikea needs before construction can begin, according Corps spokesman Richard
Tomer.
