City officials dashed several developer’s hopes this week by declaring part of the Red Hook waterfront a hotel-free zone.
The future of the 850,000-square foot waterfront parcel, now home to warehouses and a portion of the Red Hook Container Port, has been a hot topic in the Hook since the city began planning for a flashy, tourist-friendly reinvention last year.
An earlier, but non-binding, call for development schemes netted plenty of hotel visions, including one from the Manhattan-based Durst Organization and its Red Hook-based partner, New York Water Taxi President Tom Fox.
Fox and Durst’s Red Hook Beach proposal includes a new dock for the Brooklyn Cruise Ship Terminal, more berths for Fox’s water taxis, a boat repair facility, a marina and a public beach area — as well as a hotel that could serve visitors to the expanded cruise terminal.
The well-situated amenity would help offset the costs of the boat businesses and the man-made beach — attractions that cost a lot to maintain, but generate less profit than hotels.
“The sand alone would cost $100,000,” Fox said.
The request for proposals issued this week asks developers to submit schemes including a marina and a boat repair center that can employ local residents, but not a hotel.
“We are looking for maritime support and services that will complement our vision for maritime cargo and cruise uses in the area,” said Joshua Sirefman, interim president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation.
Fox declined to comment on whether he would remove the hotel from his scheme to fit the city’s vision.
The Atlantic Basin development is part a larger plan to transform the Red Hook waterfront into a tourist attraction that would preserve some of the area’s traditional maritime industry while adding new shops, parkland, artist’s studios and restaurants.
City officials have made it clear that that they want to see a hotel elsewhere in the development, which stretches along the waterfront from Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights deep into Red Hook.
As reported last week in The Brooklyn Paper, EDC officials predict that it will cost $230 million to reinforce the piers to withstand the new development.
The plan has not yet been approved by the City Council.
