Indy Car designer opens shop in Williamsburg

Brooklyn may be about 730 miles from Indianapolis, but a new company that’s descending upon the borough is closing that gap significantly. The Brooklyn Paper reported that Ayton Performance, a race car engine design and consulting company, is constructing a machine shop at 105 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg.

The reason Ethan Bregman, the owner of the shop and part of the design team for the car that won this year’s Indianapolis 500, chose this location for his eight-year-old firmis because he’s a New York City native.

“I grew up here, and when it was time to open a shop, I knew I had to do it here,” he said. “I could have done this in Charlotte or Detroit or Indy, but this is my home.”

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Bregman said some of the additional costs of opening shop in Brooklyn were offset by the city’s “brownfields” program, which offers incentives to entrepreneurs willing to clean up and build business on land that was potentially contaminated by previous owners. So far he has benefited from $31,000 in funds, according to the Brooklyn Paper.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg applauded the Bregman for bringing another industry to the city. [Brooklyn Paper] — Adam Fusfeld