Admiral's Row and a rendering of the plans for the site

Admiral’s Row in the Brooklyn Navy Yard has finally been transferred to the city, the New York Times reported, clearing the way for the 74,000-square-foot supermarket residents of the three nearby housing projects have long coveted.

Nine of the 11 homes that comprise Admiral’s Row, on the edge of the Fort Greene neighborhood, have fallen into such disrepair since the Navy Yard was closed in 1966 that even preservationists haven’t attempted to save them. [more]

Admirals Row redevelopment renderings (courtesy of GreenbergFarrow)

The New York City Council today granted final approval for the redevelopment of the six-acre Admirals Row site at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The site will be transferred from the federal government to the City of New York, and will then become part of Brooklyn Navy Yard, the city said. Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, which manages the 300-acre industrial park on behalf of the City, will oversee redevelopment of the site, creating a 74,000-square-foot supermarket and79,000 square-feet of additional retail space, as well as 127,000 square feet of industrial space.

“The transformation at the Brooklyn Navy Yard over the past decade is a prime example of our Administration’s commitment to revitalizing old industrial areas, especially along our waterfront,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. – Katherine Clarke [more]

NYC Economic Development Corp. President Seth Pinsky and the Brooklyn Army TerminalThanks to large industrial sites on the Brooklyn waterfront, in particular the Brooklyn Army Terminal and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the city’s Economic Development Corp. is making good on its effort to retain and expand New York’s industrial workforce. The Wall Street Journal reported that three new firms have signed leases at the Army Terminal, bringing the total count to 68 companies and 2,400 in the 90 percent-occupied, four million square-foot area.

“It’s an industrial landscape, which a lot of places in America have just given up on, but thanks to strategic investments by the city, unlike many of those other places, we’re actually bringing industrial uses back,” said Seth Pinsky, president of EDC. [more]

Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Admirals Row, the proposed six-acre site of a supermarket, retail and industrial facility, is moving through the city’s approval process, but one vital detail remains unresolved — the purchase of the land from the federal government.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, which manages the yard, had an arrangement with the feds to buy the land for just $1, but the government in now seeking market rate for the site, which is currently home to run-down historic 19th-century homes for military officers.
The city owns most of the Navy Yard, but Admirals Row belongs to the Army National Guard.
“We are still in negotiations with the city,” said Chris Gardner, a spokesman with the Army Corp of Engineers. “We don’t have any specific end date.” [more]

Admirals Row redevelopment renderings (courtesy of GreenbergFarrow)

The six-acre neighborhood retail and industrial redevelopment of Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Admiral Row site has finally reached the beginning of the public review process, decades after it was first proposed, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Steel and Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation President Andrew Kimball announced today.

If approved by Community Board 2, the City Planning Commission and New York City Council, the site will be transferred from the federal government to the city-owned Brooklyn Navy Yard and become home to a 74,000-square-foot supermarket, 79,000 square feet of retail space and 127,000 square feet of industrial space. It would create 500 permanent retail and industrial jobs as well as hundreds of temporary construction positions.
–Katherine Clarke [more]

City Joinery, a Dumbo-based furniture making company, is moving to Easthampton, Mass. after the landlord upped the rent by $3,000 on its 5,500-square-foot showroom and studio space at 20 Jay Street, bringing it to $8,000 a month, according to Crain’s.

Jonah Zuckerman, City Joinery’s founder and owner, said the rent hike made the space essentially unaffordable, especially since demand is lessening for wooden furniture since the recession.

“In the boom years, we would have a couple walk-ins and one or two appointments every day, so the showroom investment was totally worth it,” he said. “But in the past six months, we’d be lucky if we had one party a week.” [more]

Four New York lawmakers are urging the National Guard to step in to preserve two deteriorating buildings along Admiral’s Row in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, upping the pressure in a lengthy bureaucratic transfer process that’s left the structures in danger of collapse. The city is supposed to take over the two buildings — the historic Timber Shed and a former home called Quarters B — from the Guard as part of a development deal that would both rehabilitate them and create a ShopRite supermarket and industrial space on the site. But until that acquisition happens, the Guard isn’t allowing any emergency repair work and hasn’t done anything to preserve the buildings on its own. According to the Wall Street Journal, Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who represents the Navy Yard, has now written a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh asking him to allow $2 million allocated to the Army Corps of Engineers for the buildings to be immediately used to stabilize Quarters B. [more]

Building 268, a former metal foundry building at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, has been gutted as part of the process of becoming a world-class research and development facility by Duggal Visual Solutions. The $7 million project is slated to be completed by the end of 2011, according to Brownstoner.

Duggal founder Baldev Duggal plans to develop the property into the world’s first environment-focused resource center, revolutionizing home boiler systems and removing street lights from the city’s electric grid. [more]

City Point rendering and Aaron Malinsky

A federal grand jury handed down a new 11-count indictment in the state Sen. Carl Kruger ongoing bribery scandal charging the defendants, including real estate developer Aaron Malinsky and lobbyist Richard Lipsky, with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Malinsky was previously indicted for allegedly making $500,000 in bribes to Kruger, a Democrat from Brooklyn, who later stepped in to help move forward several major real estate developments.

Lipsky, who represented various high-profile clients including Forest City Ratner, also allegedly paid off Kruger.

Malinsky, a principal at PA Associates, and Lipsky allegedly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to Kruger through a series of bank accounts set up by Manhattan gynecologist Michael Turano, who was Kruger’s long-time companion. [more]

Government officials are quickly washing their hands clean of indicted developer Aaron Malinsky, who was accused of bribing Brooklyn State Sen. Carl Kruger earlier this month in exchange for his support on two key projects. According to the Brooklyn Paper, Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are each returning the $250 in campaign donations they received from him last August, and New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez said he plans to donate $10,500 of the $33,000 he received to charity. But Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz appears to be the odd man out, and he’s now coming under fire from government watchdogs for delaying his decision about some $21,550 in Malinsky-tied campaign contributions until after he sees the outcome of the bribery case. [more]