The city’s Economic Development Corporation, which earlier this year
evicted a shipping company from Pier 11, is now seeking proposals from
businesses interested in operating on the Red Hook pier.
The EDC on Aug. 2 issued a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI),
soliciting proposals for uses of a warehouse on the pier.
Late last year, the EDC, working in coordination with the Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey, which owns the piers, declined to renew a
lease of Pier 11 to American Stevedoring Inc. (ASI), which operated part
of its international shipping business from the pier.
The city cited its intention to build a cruise ship dock at Pier 12, using
Pier 11 as a means of entry to the cruise port. Officials insisted that
ASI clear off the pier by Jan. 1, or face steep penalties. The city said
at the time that construction of the cruise terminal, which will serve
the Norwegian and Carnival cruise lines, was imminent.
Now this week, the city has invited bidders to attend an Aug. 10 site
visit, asking for submissions from “one or more parties” looking
for “short-term interim uses of a vacant warehouse located at Pier
11, Brooklyn, New York.
“NYCEDC’s goal is to obtain maximum revenues from suitable uses
while ensuring no interference with the construction, development and
the operation of the adjacent passenger ship marine terminal,” the
RFEI states. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 2.
Councilman David Yassky, the founder and chairman of the council’s
Waterfront Committee, said the city appeared to be casting away employment
opportunities.
“This decision makes me question the city’s commitment to jobs,”
he said. “Taking Pier 11 from the container port put people out of
work, supposedly for cruise ships. That was last year. Now it looks like
we are back to square one.”
The city forced ASI to leave in December, or face $65,000-per-day liquidation
fees if they stayed into the new year, according to documents obtained
by The Brooklyn Papers.
The company, which operates Brooklyn’s last shipping port, had been
there for 12 years. ASI officials said about 68 jobs were lost when the
pier was vacated.
“This is somewhat bewildering,” said ASI spokesman Matt Yates
of the RFEI.
“It’s only eight months ago that the city, when asked why they
needed to close a viable operation, basically said, ‘Trust us, we
know what were doing.’
“They insisted that the pier was immediately needed for use with
cruise ships,” he said. “Now we found that lots of jobs, commerce
and economic activity, valuing close to $85 million, was lost.
“We’re delighted that the EDC now recognizes that Pier 11 should
never have been allowed to lie fallow,” he said, but added that he
wasn’t sure if ASI would submit a proposal to the agency’s request.
“We need more information,” Yates said, adding, “Of course,
we look forward to working with the city in any way we can.”
In addition to ASI, the warehouse held a field office of the U.S. Customs
and Border Protection Agency, which inspects all shipments and ships arriving
on piers 9 through 12.
Customs spokesman Bill Anthony said the move wouldn’t jeopardize
security on the nation’s second-largest active port.
“Is security going to be compromised? The answer is a resounding
no,” Anthony said.
“Secondly, would the safety of our employees be in any way compromised?
The answer is a resounding no.”
“Basically we are there to work with the Port Authority, and the
city, as we do in every port, and there is no way we would compromise
any security at the nation’s second largest, and arguably most important
seaport,” he said. “We are going to make sure our job is done,
and we are going to leave it up to the city and the Port Authority, and
the various people there, to give us the guidance of how they want us
to operate.”
Janel Paterson, a spokeswoman for the EDC, said the city had moved out
the Customs and Border Protection field office, “because we needed
the upland area for access to the new cruise terminal and we will ultimately
— and that’s it.”
The terminal for the cruise liners, which was expected to be constructed
and operational by this fall, according to statements made by EDC officials
last October, have now been delayed until spring, Paterson said.
A Port Authority spokesman, Steve Coleman, said for now, the Customs office
would move to Pier 9B.
“It’s just a relocation,” he said. “They’ll be
on that property.”
The EDC had no ready explanation as to why Customs couldn’t maintain
their operations on Pier 11, or be incorporated into the RFEI.
Paterson also said the city is considering some ideas for the warehouse,
but refused to specify what they would put the 271,000 square feet of
warehouse space to use for.
“We’re looking at many ideas. I can’t discuss that at this
point,” she said. “That’s what the purpose of issuing an
RFEI would serve.”
“Customs needs to be on the port,” said Yates, who said ASI
offered to take them in. “It’s like having a ship with no anchor.”
