City officials this week heralded a $100-million expansion of the Brooklyn Navy Yards as an engine that would create 800 new jobs — and bring a much-needed supermarket — for the hardscrabble neighborhood.
The plan calls for the construction of seven new buildings at the industrial park over the next three years, plus the 60,000-square-foot supermarket, which would require several historic buildings on the 19th century Admiral’s Row to be torn down.
“The Brooklyn Navy Yard is an outstanding source of job and economic development activity, but it is filled to capacity and needs to grow more so that jobs can be created,” Mayor Bloomberg said at Tuesday’s celebrity-filled groundbreaking.
The new jobs will benefit, first and foremost, the residents of Fort Greene, Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant, Hizzoner added, because the non-profit development corporation that manages the Navy Yards has promised to maximize local hiring.
Andrew Kimball, who oversees that corporation, said he was most excited that a large portion of the construction jobs would be filled by minority contractors.
The 230 companies at the Navy Yards provide more than 5,000 jobs, half of which are held by Brooklyn residents, he added.
Borough President Markowitz, City Councilmembers David Yassky (D-Brooklyn Heights), Al Vann (D-Bedford-Stuyvesant) and Letitia James (D-Fort Greene), and Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D-Williamsburg-Greenpoint) joined the star-studded crowd to shovel the first spades of dirt.
