Development

Borough Pres Adams Proposes Moving Municipal Offices to East New York

To bring economic development to the area, Borough President Eric Adams has proposed relocating government offices to Broadway Junction in East New York.

Broadway Junction. Photo by Edrei Rodriguez

by Hannah Frishberg

04/01/2016 0

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has suggested the city relocate municipal offices to East New York’s Broadway Junction to revitalize the area.

Adams has proposed a new commercial space in the range of 300,000 square feet be constructed near the busy Broadway Junction subway hub, which serves the surrounding neighborhoods of Bushwick, Ocean Hill, Brownsville, and Cypress Hills, and where the J, Z, L, A and C subway lines intersect.

The borough president made the announcement Tuesday in response to Mayor de Blasio’s December Citywide Statement of Needs for City Facilities for 2017 and 2018.

“The siting of City services must be strategic, serving our greater mission to advance holistically beneficial development that helps us raise healthy children and families,” Adams stated in a press release, going on to call the possibility an opportunity and responsibility not only to transform the “long-neglected” area but also to create jobs “as a pathway to the middle class”.

Adams recommended six city services be consolidated and moved to the proposed space, and a new local site be created for the Department of Homeless Services.

This is not the first time Adams has recommended offices be relocated to the area for the neighborhood’s economic development. Adams previously proposed a relocation in his recommendations on the East New York Community Plan and his report analyzing the impact of the 2004 rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn.

Broadway Junction is part of the area Mayor de Blasio has proposed for the East New York rezoning. The area is somewhat underdeveloped commercially compared with other parts of Brooklyn.

Constructing new office facilities and bringing city departments into the region could potentially serve locals in three ways: government services would be closer to home, jobs in the area could increase, and more workers could boost retail there.