Historic Brooklyn Navy Yard building in imminent danger of collapse

A $60 million plan to redevelop the historic Timber Shed building on Admiral’s Row in the Brooklyn Navy Yard could be thwarted if the deteriorating building isn’t stabilized soon. According to the Daily News, officials from the city’s Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. have warned that the roof of the 19th-century federal building — one of two on Admiral’s Row that it has agreed to restore — has already started to cave in and that the rest is in imminent danger of collapsing. The city is in the midst of buying the land from the federal government as part of a development deal that would both rehabilitate the shed and create a ShopRite supermarket and industrial space on the site. But it could be too late for the Timber Shed by the time the deal is done this summer, and the Navy Yard wants the feds to stabilize the building in the meantime, or allow their own developer to do the job before the building gets damaged beyond repair. Demolishing the building, said Navy Yard president Andrew Kimball, “could jeopardize the whole project.” [NYDN]