160-Imlay-Street-Brooklyn-0208.jpg
Driving past 160 Imlay Street in Red Hook last weekend, all we could think to ourselves was, “What a waste.” Here’s a site that was sitting unused generating no tax dollars for the city or revenues for neighboring business when its owners received a variance in December 2003 to convert it into a mixed-use building with residential on the upper floors and retail on the lower. Within weeks, however, a coalition called the Red Hook/Gowanus Chamber of Commerce, whose ostensible raison d’etre was to preserve and promote the industrial character and usage of the neighborhood, sued to reverse the BSA decision and squash the project. Why? Hard to say exactly. Some believe the group’s heart is in the right place; others charge that it’s basically a front for certain players in Red Hook to protect their own interests. One thing’s for sure: The fact that one of the Chamber’s leaders and largest land owners in the area, Greg O’Connell, has since leased out the floors above yuppie-mecca Fairway as market-rate apartments while the competition on Imlay Street is tied up in litigation hasn’t exactly strengthened the group’s credibility. Meanwhile, the politicians have been too chicken to do anything that could possibly be perceived to be anti-industry in the area, though we can’t see why the debate has to be reduced to an unnuanced either/or choice between jobs and housing. While there are certainly residents who don’t want the neighborhood to change, it’s hard for anyone to argue that the status quo is either working or the best allocation of scarce resources in an overcrowded city. So what of 160 Imlay? Another round of appeals was heard in October but no decision has yet to come of it. In the meantime, the building and the surrounding lots continue to sit undeveloped, derelict and not doing anyone any good—not the longshoremen, not the tourists arriving on cruise ships and certainly not the nearby restaurants and shops that could use the extra business generated by a couple hundred more units of housing in the area.
Crumbling Hopes for 160 Imlay Street? [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark DOB


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. well, Brownstoner, perhaps this is a much more interesting discussion because your post was about something other than the usual “here’s a 3 million dollar house, for which I’m providing advertising for the broker, hot or not? discuss..” types of posts. There are a lot more interesting development stories out there – problem is, I’m not sure you current advertisers would pay for them. Perhaps a better mix of stories can be had – let one pay for the other…

  2. This would make some very interesting investigative journalism if it was agressively pursued. Who is being used? Who is being paid off? What are the real forces at play here? Is the activism rooted in the desire to protect real workers and a dignified way of life or to advance the agenda of rich landowners at the expense of local residents?

    What is better for the stability of a neighborhood – Fairway with its traffic and the transient nature of rental tenants? Maybe new condo owners who are vested in the neighborhood (even if they watch sex in the city) or maybe even good old fashioned light industry? There are some complicated forces at play here and many of those forces are not exactly as they appear at first glance.

  3. I’ve been working in Red Hook as a welder for almost 3 decades. I’ve spent my entire time working at one company. When I first started working in Red Hook, Red Hook was a dangerous place. I was scared to go on the street. My car was broken into many times and a few times I wish I’d had a gun with me while trying to get home. I could not take my daughters or my wife to show them my shop, and I felt uncomfortable even going to work. I’ve been waiting for Red Hook to get nicer for as long as I can remember.

    Now it’s actually a good place to live and it’s getting nicer. Too bad it didn’t happen 20 years ago.

    And now that someone wants to make Red Hook a little nicer still and a little safer for us working folk, why do people not let this project go on? It’s a big building and that means a lot of work. Plumbers, carpenters, electricians, you name it, maybe even a little welding work. There’d be a lot of guys working there, making good money, every week. And paying taxes and buying beer after work. Instead, you have a big empty building doing no one any good. Even the dog inside seems hungry and pissed off.

    So to anyone who has stopped this project, I say, stop screwing the blue collar worker with your academic garbage. Let us work in peace and let us make a living. You can paint your castles in the sky and tell us stories about factories coming here and a bunch of other baloney. And even though I’m not some smart lawyer, I know at the end of the day, you are just trying to line your own pockets. I don’t know how exactly, but I do know that’s why you’re preventing me and my buds from working. So let me work. Let my buddies work. Let the working class do what it does: work. We’re not interested in waiting for your factories or your industries or listening to whatever nonsense you’re selling.