As the Brooklyn Nets move to new training digs in Industry City, the neighborhood of Sunset Park is poised to enjoy an economic boost, Raanan Geberer recently opined in the Brooklyn Eagle.
The practice facility’s installation atop an eight-floor building in The Complex Off 39th Street will serve as a catalyst to other businesses, such as souvenir shops and sports bars, Geberer wrote. And as those enterprises sprout, more local residents will have employment opportunities that will boost the area’s economy as a whole.
“Industrial Sunset Park is no longer what it was back in the days when it was lined with piers that brought raw materials straight to the factories,” Geberer wrote. “Until fairly recently, it was known for its strip bars and adult bookstores, and it has been difficult to shake that image.”
A couple of area enterprises like the city-administered start-up incubator Brooklyn Army Terminal and Lutheran Medical Center at 150 55th Street are active and thriving, Geberer opined. And the arrival of the Nets’ training center will act as the next “catalyst for change” that will aid Sunset Park’s nearby residential section, home to many low-income immigrants in need of good paying jobs, according to the op-ed. [Brooklyn Eagle] — Julie Strickland
