As Ikea moves to city review of its plan to build a big-box store along
the Red Hook waterfront, a real estate developer proposing an alternative
development for the site has garnered support from city preservation groups.
That’s because to make way for the 346,000-square-foot home furnishing
emporium, Ikea is looking to knock down about a dozen buildings, some
dating back to the Civil War.
The former Todd Shipyards site, more recently known as the New York Shipyards
— roughly bounded by Dwight Street, Columbia Street and the Erie
Basin — was once home to the largest dry dock on the east coast.
Civil War ships were among those repaired there.
While Ikea officials maintain that the buildings are beyond salvaging,
Bill Struever, president of the Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles
& Rouse (SBER) disagrees.
“That’s baloney,” said Streuver, who calls the buildings
“majestic” and is looking to build a sprawling, 70-acre retail,
residential and commercial development between Richards and Columbia streets
along the Erie Basin.
“We do this as a business. We’ve done over eight million square
feet of adaptive reuse of old industrial buildings including buildings
that were in far worse shape than these buildings,” Struever told
The Brooklyn Papers this week.
The company uses historic tax credits to help fund their projects.
With “spectacular views” and “terrific old buildings,”
Streuver, whose company has projects up and down the eastern seaboard,
can’t say enough about the area.
“It’s the most incredible site we’ve seen,” he said.
Struever says his plan would bring upwards of $2.5 billion of investment
to the area and 5,000 jobs.
Peg Breen, president “There are very few places on the waterfront where you have a sense Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, Carter Craft, director of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, a network With waterfront transportation on the rise and New York Water Taxi moving Alexandros Washburn, an architect working for SBER, described the shipyards While preservationists might be pushing the SBER plan, Ikea has been in In addition to creating new jobs in Red Hook, an area of high unemployment. Ikea also promises to maintain a dry dock, convert an existing pier into “Ikea has worked closely with both city and state historic preservation Ikea land use attorney Jesse Masyr also blasted what he called a “so-called “There is absolutely nothing ‘real’ about this supposed Streuver said his company has contacted Ikea officials and offered to The Ikea application will be reviewed by Community Board 6, Borough President Thursday, May 13, at 6 pm at the PAL Miccio Center, at 110 W. Ninth St. If Ikea is approved by the city, Streuver said, his plan for the Red Hook Said Streuver, “Our argument is that if you believe in [Mayor Michael] SBER does not currently own any of the land it wants to develop.
of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, supports the SBER plan.
of that era and the buildings of that era,” said Breen. “Clearly
you can take buildings like this and do something with them if you have
the imagination and the money.”
said the organization had not taken an official stand on the project but
said the “preservation of old buildings is an admirable and important
element of any large-scale development plan.”
of New Jersey and New York organizations concerned about the waterfront,
said they were most focused on preserving the dry docks on the site where
ships could be repaired.
its homeport to Red Hook, Craft said there is growing need for dry dock
space.
as a “village,” with brick structures with heavy timber posts
and machine buildings built in the 1920s that have a Bauhaus industrial
design aesthetic with skylights and 20-foot-tall windows.
contract for the 23-acre site for almost two years and last week filed
its application with the city, along with a hefty, 500-page environmental
impact statement, as part of the public review process.
Ikea is planning a 6.3-acre public waterfront esplanade and plans to lease
four piers to the neighboring Erie Basin Barge Port.
a public area and maintain five gantry cranes on the site so visitors
can learn about working-waterfront activities.
officials since the beginning of this project and we have determined that
the Civil War-era structure currently located on the New York Shipyard
site has deteriorated to a point that its re-use in the Ikea Red Hook
project is not feasible,” said Pat Smith, project director for Ikea
Red Hook.
‘alternative’ proposal,” saying it “exists solely
as a fantasy rendering drawn over other people’s property.”
alternative,” added Masyr.
help them find an alternative site.
Marty Markowitz, the City Planning Commission and the City Council. The
community board’s Landmarks/Land Use committee has scheduled the
first public hearing of the process for
in Red Hook.
waterfront is dead. But he said he is not throwing in the towel just yet
and still hopes the city will turn down Ikea.
Bloomberg’s vision for the waterfront, [Ikea] is not the right thing.”
