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OUT OF THE LOOP

Red Hook elected officials, business leaders and community representatives
were thrown for a loop this week to find out from a reporter that the
city, without their consultation or notification, had significantly changed
plans to bring cruise ships to Pier 12.

Of particular concern was the city’s decision not to build an extension
of Conover Street through Pier 11 — which is seen as necessary in
order to allay traffic congestion — due to a swelling of the anticipated
cost of renovating Pier 12. The city’s cost projection, presented
with the rest of the plans last May, was off by $10 million.

Additionally, public access to Pier 11 now looks unlikely when the piers
open for business.

Two vice presidents from the Economic Development Corporation — the
city agency charged with implementing the necessary port infrastructure
to bring Carnival and Norwegian cruise lines to the pier off Pioneer Street
— discussed those changes as part of a little-publicized Dec. 15
presentation to the Red Hook Civic Association.

Neither Councilman David Yassky, Rep. Jerrold Nadler nor Community Board
6 were represented at the meeting. There also were no representatives
from American Stevedoring Inc., which had operated a cargo business on
Pier 11 until the very day EDC spoke to the civic association. The port
operator was forced by the city to consolidate its operations onto piers
7-10 in order to make Pier 11 the point of access to the cruise line dock.

All four offices were surprised this week to learn of the changes that
had been introduced by EDC officials Andrew Genn and Paul Januszewski.

“None of this had ever come up in any of our previous conversations
with them,” said Craig Hammerman, district manager of Community Board
6, who testified in support of the liners coming to Red Hook at an October
hearing at City Hall. He said that he hadn’t heard of the changes
until asked to comment on them.

Hammerman admitted to being taken aback that EDC would “go public
with information like this without checking in with us.”

“The key element is whether or not the local street network could
absorb the traffic the facility would generate,” he said. “Having
the Conover Street extension would ensure that.”

John McGettrick, president of the Red Hook Civic Association, said that
while he took the EDC presentation to mean “they needed more money”
he wasn’t put off by the alterations.

“Essentially, there are elements we would like to see, including
access, expanded upon,” he said. “But we are hopeful that they
will keep to their timetable in opening next fall.”

Januszewski admitted at the Red Hook meeting that he was “hesitant
to show [drawings] here because they may look a lot better than they end
up looking.”

Gesturing towards where the Conover Street extension had been, he recapped
the plans that had been introduced for a through street at Pier 11.

“Originally, we had traffic coming in and out of this pier space,”
he said, noting that plans to open Pier 11 to Conover Street were now
unfeasible.

The main entrance to the cruise dock at Pier 12, at one point planned
for Pioneer and King streets, adjacent to the pier, is now set for just
Bowne Street, several blocks to the north and nearer to Pier 10.

“Piles were in much worse shape than we had expected,” said
Januszewski. He said it would cost $30 million to renovate the piers,
up from the $20 million EDC had projected in May.

“The piers need rewrapping, so a lot of the money is being spent,
unfortunately, on things people aren’t going to see,” he said.

Yassky spokesman Evan Thies said the councilman probed EDC officials after
being asked for comment on the changes and was told by the agency that
the project could rise to a cost of $50 million.

“Such cost fluctuations are frustrating when trying to plan for the
future of a neighborhood, because they jeopardize the project,” said
Thies.

Yassky was hesitant to criticize the cuts, having just found out about
them, but seemed perplexed by the notion that American Stevedoring had
been forced off the property so quickly, seemingly for naught. He also
wanted more information on the feasibility of extending Conover Street
as originally planned.

“I guess I’d like to know how much [the street extension] would
cost,” Yassky said, but added that the haste with which the city
pushed American Stevedoring out and word of the new changes, “raise
some questions about how well developed this cruise proposal is.”

EDC spokeswoman Janel Patterson said the recent changes were part of ongoing
design work and neither the plans nor the budget had yet been solidified.

“When we originally did the proposal we didn’t know we’d
be using Pier 11,” she said last week. “Now that we are, the
exit will go out on the upland part of Pier 11.

“We’re in the design phase, and nothing’s been cast in
stone,” she said about the sudden changes. “The budget is 30
million and we’re working to keep it there.”

But EDC has forged something of a credibility gap with the community dating
back to last May when, after seeking input from the public on the best
uses for Piers 6-12 the agency decided not to release the $400,000 study
to the public. Confronted by The Brooklyn Papers about the study, and
with the threat of a Freedom of Information Request pending, the agency
agreed to release the study, but Genn called it “outdated” because
cruise activity had not been factored in.

And Nadler, whose district includes the Red Hook waterfront and who has
been a staunch supporter of keeping Brooklyn’s port open for shipping
business, last summer accused the city of using the cruise ships as a
ply to squeeze out American Stevedoring.

“I’m very concerned with what’s going on with the Economic
Development Corporation,” Nadler told The Papers in July. “They
had a fixed plan to get rid of container operations before they had any
thought of bringing the cruise lines here and I don’t know why.”

In the meantime, American Stevedoring, which employs 600 longshoremen,
moved off Pier 11 as per their agreement for a three-year lease extension
on Piers 7-10.

“Pier 11’s valuable upland and cargo shed was removed from the
ASI lease-hold on Dec. 15,” said Matthew Yates, a company spokesman,
adding that American Stevedoring was told the pier was solely “to
be utilized for Brooklyn’s cruise terminal project.”

According to sources close to the American Stevedoring lease negotiations,
the company faced exorbitant “liquidated damage” charges, in
excess of $60,000 per day payable to the city, if they did not vacate
the container port on Pier 11 by the Dec. 15 deadline.

That, too, perplexed Yassky.

“I’m beginning to think this timetable is unrealistically fast
in order to help the EDC get rid of the container ship terminal,”
the councilman said.

“I keep asking, ‘Why kick the container ship terminal off piers
11 and 10 until you need them to be off?’”