Steiner Studios to Develop Brooklyn Navy Yard Site With Wegmans Supermarket

It’s been a long time coming, but finally the Brooklyn Navy Yard has found a developer and a supermarket for its long-promised Admiral’s Row development project — and it seems like a great pairing.

Steiner Studios, the Navy Yard’s biggest tenant, will develop and fund the estimated $140,000,000 project. Highly regarded supermarket chain Wegmans will be one tenant in a larger 126,000 square foot industrial building. In return Steiner will get a 96-year lease from the Navy Yard and will collect rent from Wegmans and other tenants.

This will be the first New York City store for the Rochester-based company that is popular upstate and in the Great Lakes region. The news was first reported by the New York Times.

To make way for the 74,000 square foot store, which will open in 2017, several existing Civil War-era buildings on the site will be demolished, and two will be preserved, as we have reported previously. Though this outlet will be smaller than most stores the company runs, it will be significantly larger than the Gowanus Whole Foods or Fairway, said the Times.

The company won the bid in part because it would create more jobs than those it was competing against. Wegmans plans to hire 200 full time employees and 600 people total. According to the Times, the store will interview residents of neighboring housing projects exclusively during its first two weeks of hiring.

Plans with two previous developers and other supermarkets did not work out, as we have reported in great detail over many years. Below, two of the derelict Admiral’s Row houses visible behind the fence along Flushing Avenue. The photo was taken last month.

Wegmans to Open at Brooklyn Navy Yard [NYT]
Admiral’s Row Coverage [Brownstoner]
Rendering by Beyer Blinder Belle; photo by Megan Cerullo