Red Hook

Nearly five years in the making (and just a few years off its originally-planned 2005 opening), Swedish retailer IKEA's 346,000-square-foot store on the Brooklyn waterfront will finally open on June 18, the company announced today.

"We made excellent progress on construction last year and so far this spring, so we are confident the remaining construction milestones and interior build-up process will be complete by mid-June," said store manager Mike Baker in a statement.  read more »

First, it looked like the Port Authority would cede to the Bloomberg administration’s boozy vision for the Red Hook waterfront. Then, the new people at the Economic Development Corporation took a look in the mirror. But it wasn’t at all clear where that left the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which actually owns the cargo port there.

After a Port Authority board meeting this afternoon, Executive Director Anthony Shorris, gave an appropriately ambivalent response to the question of whether the Port Authority was interested in retaining the port after all.

“We are continuing to look at what the best strategies are with the city and other players,” he told reporters.

Which we take as a reluctant yes.

Another study of the Port of New York is getting underway, this one worth up to $1.2 million and awarded to a company without putting it out for competitive bidding.

The board of the Industrial Development Agency unanimously approved the contract at its meeting Tuesday after a staff member, Venetia Lannon, said that hiring STV Inc. to do the job would be worth it because the company had already done a study on the same subject—just eight years ago, in fact.

At $1.2 million, the contract would be the second-largest contract the Economic Development Corporation, the IDA's parent entity, has given out to strategic consultants during the Bloomberg administration, after McKinsey & Co.'s work on PlaNYC, which was also no-bid.

Even more interesting, however, is the choice of vendor. The 1999 study, which was supposed to map out strategy until 2020, recommended investing $25 million into the Red Hook, Brooklyn, cargo terminal and keeping it for freight, according to an executive summary obtained by The Observer. Shortly after coming into office, the Bloomberg administration explored turning that terminal into an entertainment-marina complex, but now seems to have headed back in the original direction.  read more »

Kate Ascher, an executive vice president at the city Economic Development Corporation who was overseeing the conversion of the Red Hook container port to a cruise ship terminal, is leaving next week, the Crain’s Insider reported Thursday (subscription required).

The transfer of the Red Hook piers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to the city is still months away it seems, though the Post and the Sun on Thursday made it seem imminent.

"We anticipate that the final transfer will occur later this year," Port Authority Executive Director Anthony Shorris said in a statement.

Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman likened the agreement that was signed between the two entities to a contract on a house, as opposed to an actual closing.

Still, it does seem like the city has advanced its cause considerably since Mr. Shorris told reporters three weeks ago he was "looking at what should happen."

Democratic lawmakers had been pushing Mr. Shorris to hold off on the transfer since the city would move, or maybe even eliminate, the Red Hook container port in favor of a mixed-use, marine-dependent development.

And what a development that will be. Ever considered how highly hops figure into the Economic Development Corporation's plans for the piers? a A brewery, a beer garden and a beer distributorship are all in the cards. Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, who signed the agreement, did a good job of negotiating. For one, the transfer is off if the city fails to change the zoning on the area to permit these new uses. For another, the city will get the piers for a pretty decent price ($1). If the city is not able to cover the costs of maintaining the piers with lease payments from their users, it will be able to draw down on a fund, set at "up to $75 million," that the Port Authority will put forth.

Why? The memorandum of understanding cites a consultant's study that found that the Port Authority would have to spend $130 million over the next 25 years on maintenance otherwise. - Matthew Schuerman

Asked whether he wanted to move forward with the plan to hand over the Red Hook piers to the city Economic Development Corporation, the new executive director of the Port Authority, Anthony Shorris, said, in essence, he wants to think about it:

Right now, we are having conversations and are doing a lot of looking at what should happen at each of the piers. The thing that is most important is to make sure that they remain active, job generating, supporting the economic growth of the city and the port. That is a complicated set of decisions that we are in discussions that I am just catching up on.

This sounds like bureaucratic blather, but it also gives Shorris enough breathing space in case he wants to upset the EDC's plan to replace the container port with another cruise-ship terminal, of which The Observer wrote last week. It also distinctly sends a message that the Port Authority, which has perennially toggled between being an economic development agency and a transportation agency, wants to be the former.

- Matthew Schuerman

Just a couple of years ago, the container port in Red Hook, Brooklyn, looked doomed.    read more »

Bear Stearns Feasts at 237 Park Avenue "When it comes to the relentless pursuit of prime Manhattan real estate, Bear Stearns is virtually unmatched. After taking 250,000 square feet in two leases last year, the I-bankers are closing in on a 106,000 square foot expansion at 237 Park Avenue." Lawyers Love 919 Third Avenue "The law firm that has the ear of every major hedge fund in the city, Schulte Roth & Zabel, has signed a lease for an 88,0000 square foot expansion at its headquarters at 919 Third Avenue." Go to Commercial Breaks by John Koblin. A Booth Remains the Same at Former Beat Drinking Hole "Don't be fooled by the freshly-scrubbed floors, potted tropical-looking plants, and lively Latin music at Jeremy Merrin's newest restaurant, located at 2911 Broadway, across from Columbia University. This is, in fact, Jack Kerouac's favorite New York dive bar. At least, it used to be." Go to Counter Espionage by Chris Shott. Model Lands Urban Glass House Condo "The Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton has bought a duplex on the 10th and 11th floors of the Urban Glass House, the last residential commission of the late Philip Johnson." Chelsea Rowhouse Goes for $8.25 Million "The Andrew Norwood House, a landmarked rowhouse at 241 West 14th Street, has been sold to the 29-year-old developer Ben Shaoul for $8.25 million." Go to Manhattan Transfers by Max Abelson. Battle for Red Hook Pivots on Cargo and Cruise Ships "Just a couple of years ago, the container port in Red Hook, Brooklyn, looked doomed. But fierce reactions from neighbors and politicians who want to hold tightly to the 'working waterfront' of Red Hook's storied past spurred the city's Economic Development Corporation to temper its condos-and-cruise ship formula for the port." Go to story by Matthew Schuerman. Paris, London Make Manhattan Offices Look Cheap "Manhattan office-market stats out last week showed what everyone already knows: The borough has one of the most expensive and tightest office markets in the world. But it's nothing compared to Paris, London, Hong Kong, and a few other (select) cities." Go to The Lab by Tom Acitelli. Sign up for The Observer's weekly real-estate news email blast.

Despite last month's stormy City Council hearing on the future of the Brooklyn waterfront, the city's Economic Development Corporation is pushing part of its Red Hook plan forward--the part it can push forward without engendering further controversy.

A request for proposals issued on Tuesday asks for bidders to submit plans for a marina and marina repair shop in the Atlantic Basin and Pier 10, which the city has been leasing from the Port Authority since early 2005. The request (PDF) only very slightly mentions Pier 10, which is where the EDC has met resistance in its effort to replace the cargo-container port with Brooklyn's second cruise-ship terminal.

- Matthew Schuerman

• What Chelsea really needs is a nice tall condo. Luckily, construction has begun on Chelsea Stratus, "what will be the neighborhood's tallest building." The 40-story condo on Sixth Avenue between 24th and 25th streets will have a billiard room, media lounge, and a rooftop terrace dog run. It was designed by Lucifer. [Real Deal]
• The 12,000-square-foot Pratt mansion at 280 Washington Avenue has dropped from $3,995,000 to $3,399,000. Will it go into the terrible twos? Quoth the experts: "There just aren't a lot of buyers looking to drop more than $3 mil on a place in Clinton Hill just yet." [Brownstoner]
• Does the Brooklyn Papers' headline Hookers To Get Red Light mean that a sleazy legalized prostituion zone has opened in the sleaziest outer borough? Or maybe it has something to do with a new Red Hook traffic light where a pedestrian was killed. (It could be either.) [BP]
• Out in the 'burbs, a 12,000-square-foot (a la Pratt) mansion is listed for $15.9 million in Sands Point, Long Island. "The exterior is a rather standard Mediterranean but the interior reveals a bizarre fantasy of luxury... [The ceiling] is both muraled and coffered (and not once but twice)." [Luxist]
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

Here are some of the union members who joined Rep. Jerry Nadler, Council members David Yassky and Mike Nelson and Working Families Party Executive Director Dan Cantor on the City Hall steps today to protest a draft proposal from the city to close the Red Hook Container Terminal, where 633 people work.

Nadler, who I'll venture to say is as knowledgeable as any elected official in the country about the shipping industry, said the end of the terminal could mean the end of New York's relevance as a port city.

From a statement:

"This type of myopia and short-term economic planning will only mean fewer jobs for New York City, a less dominant shipping industry, more vehicular traffic and congestion, and rising transportation costs for all of us. Absent a Brooklyn container port, we would be entirely dependent on the ports located on the other side of the Kill Van Kull. This must not happen."

-- Azi Paybarah

You know a Brooklyn neighborhood has really hit the big time when it gets its own eponymous murder m  read more »

• This month's Metropolis cover-story is on The Piano Man: "This sense of transparency is part of the story," the architect says about his new NYT HQ. "It's about the art of telling the story by using form. And the idea [is] that the Times is a building and institution where the relationship with the city is more open, more permeable." Architecture cliches and media cliches go so well together! [Metropolis Magazine]
• Coney Island's Astrotower may be migrating "to an amusement park in the South." Or maybe the 275-foot-tall thrill-ride will be donated to Manhattan? Either way: acrophobes, beware. [NY Post]
• The impending of demolition of Red Hook's iconic Revere Sugar Refinery is being captured in real time on the newfangled Internets. The RSR owner, Thor Equities, will have some explaining to do. [Curbed]
• The sellers of Starrett City--the 140-acre Brooklyn sprawl--promise that the community's 14,000 residents won't be robbed of their housing subsidies after the impending big-buck sale. And the buyers won't raze the whole place either! "They'd have to evict tenants from 5,800 units, and that would take 58 years and cost them $500 million in legal fees." Doesn't sound that far-fetched. [Multi-Housing News]
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

A remnant of the Civil War may trip up the Ikea store planned for Red Hook, Brooklyn. The Municipal Art Society announced on Tuesday a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which plans to allow a parking lot for the Ikea store on what was once a graving dock.

The society is suing to require the Corps to do a full review of the effects of the Ikea on all historic properties in the area, including the dock, which dates to the 1860s. "The law requires a proper historic review, and the public deserves it," said Municipal Art Society president Kent Barwick in a statement.

The society filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Friday.

The nonprofit's full release after the jump.  read more »

- Tom Acitelli

Representative Jerry Nadler came out swinging last night at the scoping meeting for the New York Economic Development Corporation's planned redevelopment for Piers 7 through 10 on the Carroll Gardens/Red Hook Waterfront. Mr. Nadler opposed the transformation of Pier 10--currently used for maritime shipping--into a second cruise-ship terminal and 250-room hotel.
Citing the vulnerability of the Kill Van Kull--which connects Newark Bay and the Upper New York Bay and is the principal access for container ships to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the 15th-busiest port in the world--Mr. Nadler said that the shipping operations must continue in Brooklyn. "The Kill Van Kull is too narrow and shallow for the [metropolitan] area to depend on it," Mr. Nadler said, noting that if by accident or terrorism a ship sunk in the narrow straight, the economy of the region would be seriously affected. The Red Hook piers would be needed if any traffic to New Jersey is disrupted.
 read more »

The New York City Economic Development Corporation will hold a scoping meeting tonight at the Long Island College Hospital at 6 p.m. for the planned development on Piers 7 through 12 on the Carroll Gardens and Red Hook waterfront. The E.D.C. has some grand plans for the development--from parks to housing and waterfront access.

Critics of the plan point out that it doesn't provide any additional housing in Red Hook--instead it will generate more traffic, which is a bone of contention that Red Hookers have been pleading to the city about for months. (Readers of this blog will rememember our coverage of a Fairway-related traffic fatality earlier this year and the D.O.T.'s seeming complacency.)
It's a guaranteed packed house; emotions are sure to run high! Turn off that damn TV and show up. It's better than Lost!  read more »

-Matthew Grace

The mid-90s: a good thing.

• How the mighty have fallen! Ex-executive, ex-con Martha Stewart may sell her $9 million Turkey Hill estate to a "Connecticut-based local TV host." This personality, Mr. Mar Jennings, will own the hallowed grounds on which Ms. Stewart's not-impenetrable empire was built. (New York Post)
• Is "buzz"-happy Red Hook still the same neighborhood? Maybe. According to the Times, "local real estate agents" agree that the majority of residents still live in projects--and the Red Hook Houses have nearly the lowest average income in New York. That stat comes from a NYT piece on the neighborhood's African American "old timers," in which real estate nicknames like "Poor Block, Junkie Paradise, Crazy Corner" are rattled off without a hint of condescension or discomfort. (New York Times)
• CNN loves the bubble, or at least it loves bubble stories. Thus we are all alerted this morning to the big news that real estate does not necessarily make a good short-term investment. The story's headline reads: "With the real estate bubble losing air, is this your big chance - or the single worst time to buy?" Everyone panic. (CNN/Money)
• Eloquent Metropolis gives a brief overview of the recent infiltration of public art, including Sarah Sze's Corner Plot in Central Park ("self-contained by its submerged plot"), Nancy Rubins' Big Pleasure Point at Lincoln Center ("Hurricane Katrina"), and Jeff Koons' Balloon Flower (Red) at 7 WTC ("of course... now trite."). (Metropolis)
• Questionable Expert Assertion of the Day: "Long Island City, along with Greenpoint, Brooklyn, contain the same potential as such Manhattan areas as Chelsea or the Lower East Side." (Globe St.)
- Max Abelson  read more »
• 1 comment

On a recent Sunday at the new Fairway supermarket in Brooklyn, a pale, reed-thin man, pointy-nosed a  read more »

After countless excrutiating decades in which young men in tight black jeans and ironically un-ironic neck scarves were deprived of aquatic transport, the Water Taxi has finally headed to the Brooklyn waterfront.

Red Hook? Check. Williamsburg? Double check.

But, of course, it's hard to force trends upon the trendy. Therefore NYWT is specifically imploring "hipsters" to enter Flickr photographs of the special yellow boat.  read more »

What's at stake? $9,140 worth of prizes. And Brooklyn's dignity.

- Max Abelson

Yesterday we ran an item about the mysterious appearance of traffic-strips--the devices that count vehicular traffic--on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, the neighborhood where residents have been agitating for traffic-calming measures from the Department of Transportation, to no avail. Careful readers will remember that a woman was killed last month by a wayward van allegedly coming from the parking lot of the nearby newly opened Fairway grocery store.
We reported that the D.O.T. was not conducting a traffic study; we now retract that: According to a spokeswoman for the D.O.T., a study is indeed going on right now. The D.O.T. is conducting the study for the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, but not for traffic calming. That will still have to wait till fall. The D.O.T. spokeswoman said that the Greenway study is being done now because pedestrian and bicycle usage is up in these months; in the fall, when vehicular traffic is up, another study will be conducted to figure out how not to slaughter pedestrians.
-Matthew Grace

Yesterday, Red Hook residents gathered at the corner of Van Brunt and Wolcott streets, the intersection where Janett Ramos was struck and killed by a van two weeks ago, to protest what organizer John McGettrick called the Department of Transportation's "indifference bordering on incompetence" regarding traffic in the once-sleepy neighhborhood. Over 125 people showed up for a vigil for Ramos; afterward, the crowd marched through heavy truck traffic, waving signs and shouting at vehicles to honk in support. At one point a firetruck stopped and firefighters yelled out in support of installing a traffic light at the corner.

According to Mr. McGettrick, the D.O.T. is ignoring the needs of the community, resulting in needless fatalities. The corner where Ramos was killed is one of the busiest intersections in Red Hook, equidistant from the new cruise-ship terminal to the north and the new Fairway grocery store to the south. Residents say that increased traffic from the Fairway is making the street dangerous. A spokeswoman for the D.O.T., contacted after the Ramos' death, said the department is waiting for the fall before conducting a traffic study, in order for traffic patterns to emerge.

 read more »

Spurred in part by the recent traffic fatality of Janett Ramos, the Red Hook Civic Association, the Red Hook Lions, Groups Against Garbage and the Beard Street Association will be demonstrating in Red Hook today, at Van Brunt and Wolcott streets, at 6:30 p.m.

According to the flyer, Van Brunt Street has the largest stretch of unprotected intersections in the city; ever since the Fairway grocery store opened in May, area residents have been complaining about the increased traffic and the D.O.T.'s lack of action to enact traffic-calmiing measures.
The D.O.T.--as reported earlier--is waiting until fall to conduct a study.

-Matthew Grace

As evidenced by these before-and-after pictures, it appears the D.O.T. belatedly painted new crosswalks on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, including the intersection where Janet Ramos was struck by a van last week and killed.

The D.O.T., you'll remember, said that it had no plans for any traffic-calming measures until a planned traffic study in the fall. Residents have been demanding some sort of solution ever since the nearby Fairway opened in May and traffic in the once-sleepy hamlet boomed.
We applaud the D.O.T. for finally doing something, but question its timing: Does it require someone's death to get a clearly painted crosswalk--in front of a public school no less?

-Matthew Grace

Previous coverage here.  read more »

Via the Gowanus Lounge, the Park Slope Courier reports that Senator Chuck Schumer has funds coming out of the Senate Appropriations Committee that are earmarked for an Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study to assess "environmental problems and potential solutions in the Gowanus Canal."

The canal, which connects the Red Hook waterfront to the Park Slope-Carroll Gardens nabe (a.k.a. Gowanus), is currently a pollution-saturated, industrial nightmare. It's got a certain beauty and charm, though, and once--if ever--it's cleaned up, real-estate values in that area are certain to soar.
The money is for a study only, but the city's D.E.P. says it'll upgrade the canal's flushing tunnel soon--beginning in 2008 and continuing for three to four years--which will hopefully get fresh water into the canal, making it more habitable for wildlife.
Kudos to Chuck. Sure wish he knew someone to tackle our traffic problems.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

According to the NYPD, the woman who was struck by a van last Thursday, July 6, in Red Hook, has died. Police identified her as Janet Ramos, of Sunset Park.

Area residents have complained about increased traffic since the opening of the nearby Fairway grocery store in May. Witnesses said the van that struck Ramos came from the Fairway parking lot. The D.O.T. has not conducted a study of traffic in the neighborhood yet; it plans on conducting a study in the fall.
StreetsBlog has a damning post calling out the D.O.T. on its complacency regarding traffic, traffic studies and the resulting carnage on city streets.

See our earlier coverage here.

Update: The medical examiner's office just got back to us with Ramos' cause of death: blunt compact injuries of the head.

-Matthew Grace

"Restoring New York's Communities" has a pleasant ring to it, especially now that the phrase has been backed by $300 million in state funding. Assemblyman Jim Brennan, who represents Brooklyn and chairs the Assembly Committee on Cities, says the initiative will help restore blighted communities by funding the reconstruction of deteriorated real estate.

"Think of where the fire was in Williamsburg," he explained. "The city can use this money to knock it down and prepare the land for development."

Priority for state grants, he said, will go to sites contaminated by toxic waste (via the Brownfield Opportunity Areas program). Mr. Brennan pointed to former industrial sites within Red Hook, Gowanus and Williamsburg: "The city can do a $20 million project that would knock down some vacant industrial structures, acquire the land, clear the site of toxic contamination, and then have a development project."  read more »

Like affordable housing? "Sure, or a commercial development. Or a box store."

-Max Abelson

Last night around 10 p.m. at the intersection of Van Brunt and Wolcott streets in Red Hook, a woman was struck and thrown by a gray minivan that had just turned out of the Fairway parking lot five blocks away, according to witnesses. The van was heading north on Van Brunt as the woman was trying to cross the street. According to police at the scene, the woman, who is in her early 20's and had not yet been identified, is in serious but stable condition.

The accident happened in front of P.S. 15, at an intersection where faded paint marked three of the four crossings. Witnesses said the woman was walking across the one unpainted crossing. She was taken to Long Island College Hospital, where a source at the hospital confirmed that she was alive. The hospital would not release any information.
Residents in the neighborhood have been complaining about increased traffic and dangerous conditions in recent months with the opening of the Fairway grocery store and the nearby cruise-ship terminal. The Department of Transportation recently installed a traffic light for the cruise-ship terminal on the north end of Van Brunt Street, but has not installed any traffic-calming measures for the south end of the street. Recently in The Brooklyn Papers, residents said that traffic signal near the cruise-ship terminal should have been installed near the school, in the neighborhood's center. According to the Daily News, D.O.T. Commissioner Iris Weinshall is a frequent shopper at Fairway.
A policeman at the scene said the driver of the van had not been charged. There was nobody at the 76 Precinct's stationhouse who would answer any questions.
Update: According to the NYPD, the victim is in critical condition as of 5 p.m. on July 7. The driver of the van was charged with unlicensed operation--basically, no driver's license.
We've also gotten off the phone with a spokesperson from the D.O.T. She said that the D.O.T. is waiting until the fall before conducting any traffic study on Van Brunt Street. According to the spokesperson, it's necessary to wait a few months for traffic patterns to emerge so that accurate measurements are taken. The D.O.T. spokesperson was unaware of the traffic signal at Van Brunt and Bowne streets, which was installed before the cruise-ship terminal ever opened.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

B61 has the goods on last Monday's Brookyln Community Board 6 meeting with the city's Econoomic Development Corporation about the future of Piers 7 through 20 in Red Hook, 120 acres that run from the Atlantic Basin to the southern edge of the future Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Features of the E.D.C. plan include a second cruise-ship terminal, hotel and convention-center space, the retention of industrial operations, a possible water-taxi expansion and, most exciting, a Conover Street expansion, which would alleviate the traffic problems that are currently causing constant congestion on Van Brunt Street due to the new Fairway and the cruise-ship terminal already extant.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

• Frank Gehry, the popstar behind Tiffany jewelry and Bruce Ratner skyscrapers, gets his $4.6 million contract for the WTC arts center extended for yet another year. Sadly Mr. Gehry will face the annoyance of dealing with the Port Authority, whose executive director promises: "If there's an obstacle, that's not the obstacle." (AP, via New York Daily News)
• Heiress Anna Anisimova pays a slick $600,000 for her Hamptons summer rental, smashing her record-breaking $550,000 tab from 2004. (Congratulations, Anna.) Lucky for us all it's an "open house" - you can already find 50 guests at the tiki bar, the sunken tennis court, or at one of 8 plasma TVs. (New York Post)
• A house in Red Hook may (or may not) have sold for a million. Curbed blames Fairway, we blame Time Out. (Curbed)
• Guess who insists that Manhattan real estate is looking perfectly rosy? The Real Estate Board of New York, of course. Despite the Board's comforting new numbers -- like the 22% jump (to $838,000) for the median condo sale -- some cold-hearted analysts insist the market is "flat." (Crain's)
• Stock traders are the luckiest: The state's Job Creation and Retention Program forks nearly a million dollars over to Wall Street's LaBranche & Co., so that they'll stay put at 33 Whitehall Street. If only poor Anna could get the same deal in the Hamptons. (The New York Times)
• A very big, very old, and very valuable hole in the ground (fortunately situated at 42nd and Eighth) may be changing hands. The hole's owner, Howard Milstein, has apparently been "looking forward to coming out of the ground." Meanwhile his retail leasing agent Robert Futterman wonders: "what's in Howard's mind when he wakes up in the morning?" (New York Post)
- Max Abelson  read more »
• 0 comments

Here's a little before and after of the Ikea site in Red Hook. (be in awe of our Photoshop skillz!) Demolition seems to be going quickly. We'll try and see what's happened to the graving dock this weekend.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

While Fairway's got the fresh produce, keep in mind that Added Value operates a couple of farmer's markets nearby in Red Hook from July 8 through Thanksgiving. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, you can check out their farm at Columbia and Sigourney streets (map). On Wednesdays there's a small stall on the corner of Wolcott and Dwight streets (map).

Also, in previous posts we forgot to mention that the Red Hook Fairway is open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. And the prices, if you're curious, seem to be very reasonable. No Whole Foods price-gouging herre.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

Well, the store's quickly turned from a relaxed, cocktail-party-like atmosphere to a free-for-all, with shoppers crowding each other, carts banging into little children and each other, and grumbling overheard about the lack of space and poor traffic design.

Nevertheless, people are in a shopping frenzy, an orgy of food purchasing and sampling. It's as if the crowd disbelieves that the Fairway is indeed open, and must hoard supplies before, magically, it disappears, reverting once more to an empty warehouse on the waterfront with only a lonely tugboat sounding its horn in the broken-down, ramshackle space.

 read more »

Curbed's got info that 160 Imlay is up for sale. Observers of the Red Hook scene will note that this property's had problems since its developers started its condo conversion. Red Hook real-estate baron Greg O'Connell's been opposed to the conversion since the beginning, and the projects been stalled for years.

Mr. O'Connell's been the prime mover for much of Red Hook's "renaissance"--depending on whom you ask--and he's the owner of 480-500 Van Brunt Street, the Fairway building.  read more »

We'll go O'Connell-hunting this afternoon--he's been spotted at the Fairrway opening--and get his take on this development.

-Matthew Grace

It's finally open! After weeks--nay, months--of anticipation, the 52,000-square-foot Red Hook Fairway finally opened its doors to the press at 9:30 a.m., and the general public a hour later. From the look of it, it was a resounding success: plenty of media, followed by a large neighborhood turnout.

Media-savvy Fairway greeted the press with a bag full of swag--Fairway-brand olive oil, balsamic vinegar, coffee and popcorn--and free samples were abundant. Sushi, hummus and chips were served, and a marching band set up in the parking lot to herald in the shoppers.

 read more »

Yeah, it's clever of Ikea to use a Dire Straits song for its animated walk-through of their planned Red Hook store (the Erie Basin and the long struggle to get this store approved are but two referents we can think of immediately), but "Walk of Life"? Song blows, yo. Nonetheless, this video (click on connection speed at top of page) shows a livable compromise between Ikea's big boxiness and public access to the waterfront. The cranes in Ikea yellow and blue does seem like a sellout--can't they be kept decrepit and maritime?

(Via Amy's New York Notebook.)  read more »

-Matthew Grace

A spokeswoman for Fairway just sent us an e-mail with an updated tentative opening date for its Red Hook location: May 17. The oft-delayed opening keeps getting postponed, but spies have seen the interior of the building and say it's nearly ready to go.

According to Curbed a few days ago, the store's just waiting for a few inspections before it can open. Hurry up! We're hungry.

Also, apparently there will be water taxis available on weekends from downtown Manhattan to the Fairway store and back. The catch? Five bucks--and they don't take MetroCards.

See the full press release after the jump ....  read more »

-Matthew Grace

Critical Mass, a group show by artists Colin Keefe, Robert Grunder and Lucas Monaco, is on display at the Kentler International Drawing Space, at 353 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, through May 6.

According to the show's literature, these artists "utilize obsessive, repetitive, and elegant drawings to reconcile and display the shifting spatial notions and porous boundaries of what constitutes city and suburban life in the present as well as its dreamy, fantastical roots and yearnings."  read more »

Translation: cool cityscape art.

-Matthew Grace

Imagine: a big cargo ship runs aground trying to get through a narrow channel between Staten Island and New Jersey on its way to Port Elizabeth. It tears its hull and cannot make it to the shipyard for repairs because it is sitting low in the water and there is no other route to New Jersey.

Such is the condition of New York Harbor--narrow channels, shallow waters, what were they thinking when they made this place a maritime center?--that such an event really happened, last Saturday morning. For a few hours, it blocked traffic. Then last night, the vessel made its way over to Red Hook's Pier 10, to the only container port in the New York area that did not require use of that channel. Where else could it have gone?

Baltimore.  read more »

American Stevedoring, the Red Hook port operator, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the port's chief cheerleader, staged a press conference today in front of the ship as it was unloading. It was a brilliant p.r. move meant to dramatize the possible consequences of Bloomberg's push to replace cargo ships with cruise ships in Brooklyn: What if a terrorist sunk a ship in Kill Van Kull and it refused to budge? Where would we get our food, our clothing, our bottled water? Brilliant, except for the fact that the media advisory sent out this morning had misspelled the ship's name--spell check's fault, apparently--as New Deli Express instead of New Delhi Express.

-Matthew Schuerman

• Two planes crashed in 1960, killing several and destroying a Park Slope block, not to mention a community. Over 40 years later, the site finally sees new life--in the wake of a residential boom, no less. (New York)
• Bogota inspires Bronx with ... a bicycle path!(WNYC)
• Metropolis gets poetic about 7 WTC: "It was a cold, clear autumn night and the view from the 49th floor, lit by LED-filled balloons, was just astonishing. For the first time it seemed that this replacement for the old 7 WTC, an unexceptional 1980s granite-clad tower that caved in at 5:28 p.m. on September 11, was not just a snappy speculative building but a genuine piece of architecture."
• The NYPD is watching. But maybe the 500 extra cameras will protect us against those nasty shakedowns. (Unless, you like that.) (AP)
• Miuccia Prada is here to reopen her store--skateboard ramp intact--with the inaugural exhibition "Waist Down." But some people just care about wearing the label, not the clothes. (Sigh) (New York)
• Enjoy the (annoying) attention of tableside service at these fine dining institutions. (New York)
• Or, enjoy homestyle cooking and booth seating at Red Hook newcomer Good Fork. (New York)
• Big Love in Staten Island: "Run as a nonprofit, Ganas is possibly New York City's only experiment in affordable communal living that doesn't require you to join a cult." (New York)
• Arch rivalry between eyebrow shapers. It's just too good. (New York)
• Don't mistake vegans for some sandal wearing peaceniks. They'll kick your ass with socialist fervor. (Metro)
- Riva Froymovich
• 0 comments

Early Saturday morning the Queen Mary 2 berthed at the new $52 million, 182,000-square-foot cruise-ship terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The 23-story-tall ship. which is nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall, dwarfed the low-rise residential and industrial neighborhood, and residents biked, walked and jogged on the sunny day to stare and snap pictures of the ocean liner.

The QM2 is the largest passenger liner ever built, according to Cunard, the company that operates it, and the Red Hook cruise-ship terminal is now the largest ship terminal in New York City, capable of berthing the extra-large ships Manhattan's West Side terminal cannot. It's expected to bring in $200 milllion in port charges through 2017.  read more »

Mayor Bloomberg made pithy remarks at the formal ceremony and Borough President Marty Markowitz was self-deprecating and slightly embarrassing. He apparently likes Brooklyn. Who'd a thunk it?

The Fifth Avenue Committee, a Brooklyn affordable-housing nonprofit, is involved in several building renovations throughout Park Slope, Sunset Park and Red Hook that are near completion, and the organization is accepting applications from parties interested in purchasing them.

These buildings are part of the Neighborhood Homes Program, where the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development conveys city-owned buildings to nonprofits for rehabilitation and sale to homebuyers.  read more »

Check out the various properties after the jump!

A section of the ceiling of the cruise ship terminal under construction in Red Hook collapsed this morning around 9 a.m.

"I don't know how major it was. There were four workers who were treated for minor injuries--dust in their eyes. No serious injuries were sustained, thank goodness," Craig Hammerman, district manager of Community Board 6, told us.

This was where the Queen Mary II was supposed to dock April 15. It is not clear whether this incident will delay the opening.

More to come.

-Matthew Schuerman CORRECTION: An earlier post said it was the roof not ceiling that had collapsed. Check here for an update.

The Municipal Art Society, in concert with the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, the Save the Graving Dock Committee, the Roebling Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archeology and PortSide, opened its exhibit last night at the Urban Center, Big Box on the Basin.

The impetus for the exhibit is Ikea's development of the former Todd Shipyard on the Eerie Basin in Red Hook. Part of the shipyard is currently occupied by Graving Dock No. 1, a massive concrete canyon cut into the shipyard for maritime ship repair, and its pumphouse (which is half-demolished as of now).  read more »

The M.A.S. is trying to get Ikea to preserve the graving dock, even going so far as to commission an alternative design for the Ikea store that would allow the two to co-exist--and the graving dock to remain in operation.

Tonight, the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, the Save the Graving Dock Committee and the Roebling Chapter, Society for Industrial Archeology will present Big Box on the Basin: Retaining Red Hook's Last Working Shipyard at the Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue at 51st Street.

Alternative plans to the Red Hook Ikea store will be considered, and the exhibition will run until May 26. It seems that it's a little late for this program, as demolition of the shipyard is currently underway. But it should be fun to see the pictures and learn about history of the venerable Red Hook waterfront.

See Waterwire,net for details.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

The Brooklyn Papers report that Community Board 6's waterfront committee smacked down Thor Equities plea to have its Revere Sugar refinery, on the waterfront in Red Hook, exempted from the Industrial Business Zone. The refinery has sat abandoned for years.

The developer recently bought the property for $40 million and is trying to convert the site into retail and residential properties. It's located next to Greg O'Connell's Beard Street Pier and two blocks form the soon-to-open Fairway grocery store.  read more »

The I.B.Z. is designed to retain industry in the city, making it harder for developers to rezone industrial property.

-Matthew Grace