CHA BMT Update: February 10, 2025

Posted on by Cobble Hill Association

The below is the exact text/images from the CHA’s February 10, 2025 email to the community “The Latest on the BMT Waterfront Redevelopment”

Dear Cobble Hill Community,

If it seems as though the CHA has been hyper-focused on the Brooklyn Marine Terminal in the last few months, it’s because this project stands to have a massive impact on our neighborhood. Results are rolling in for our survey (please fill out if you haven’t already) and the community wants more information. So while this may be a little long, we have prepared a detailed update on where things stand right now with regards to the following:

  • Marginal Pier
  • Container Port
  • Blue Highway
  • Housing
  • Public Realm
  • Cruise Terminal
  • Timeline

Please read the attached memo, from Andrew Kimball, CEO NYC/EDC which lays out various scenarios for the site based on financial feasibility (this document, and everything else provided to the Task Force, has been made public by CB6 and can be found here). While these are possible outcomes, as seen by EDC and their consultants, the scenarios put forth are not designs and there are a number of outstanding questions about the underlying financial and cost assumptions. 

Marginal Pier

The plan has always been to demolish the inoperable Piers 9A & 9B, and replace them with a single marginal pier (horizontal) for maritime uses. This is what the $164 MegaInfra Grant was in part intended to help pay for. Recent proposals by EDC have attempted to add Pier 8 to the marginal pier and also build it farther out into the water. Under NY State DEC regulations, if you take away water, you have to return it, so this proposal would involve not only losing Pier 8, but also roughly 2/3rds of Pier 7.  

At this point it is unclear whether the current Federal administration will release the $164 million grant.

Image of possible marginal pier configuration reducing size of Pier 7 from a financial feasibility memorandum prepared by project consultants Buro Happold.

Container Port

The conversations around the container port operation and its potential for expansion and profitability are highly technical and highly disputed by many task force members. Relevant to the community is that Pier 10 will continue as an active container port, and the new marginal pier will handle any additional container port intake in addition to the Blue Highway initiative. Initial studies suggest growth opportunities for the port may be limited by market demand, among other factors. There are other public benefits to maintaining an active port in Brooklyn, including emergency responsiveness and supporting Blue Highway operations. Although neither of these benefits have been quantified in any way.

Blue Highway

There will be infrastructure built out for a “Blue Highway,” which in theory will one day reduce trucks on our streets by moving goods via the water throughout the city, and then into neighborhoods through micro-mobility/environmentally friendly transportation options. In the short term, ours would be one of the first nodes built in a larger network, and it will take an unspecified amount of time for companies to adapt their business model in a way where we see real environmental benefits. 

“Two Key Goods Flows: Perishable Goods Transshipment and Last-mile Package Distribution” – an example of how the Blue Highway could work from page 65 of the “BMT Port Research” presentation deck.

EDC has acknowledged there is no guarantee all cargo going out by barge will come in via barge (i.e., some cargo could be brought in via trucks to then go out on barge), especially during the process of building out the larger Blue Highway network. However, no analysis appears to have been done on the resulting impacts to the surrounding communities.  

Housing

Debates surrounding whether and to what extent housing is appropriate at the BMT site have taken a backseat to financing significant repairs and improvements to the maritime infrastructure. This recent article in the Red Hook Star Revue provides a good overview. The City is trying to kill two birds with one stone. The City wants/needs to build more affordable housing, and they have a stated need of $1.5 billion dollars to fund the maritime infrastructure repairs. The proposed solution is to have market-rate/luxury housing development fund the maritime infrastructure repairs, and also fund the nearly $1.5 billion for infrastructure to support the housing (e.g., utilities, sewers, roads), and any other public realm improvements (e.g., parks). Current projections are between 6,000 and 9,000 units, predominantly on Columbia Street (25% Affordable, 37% market rate, 38% condo), with higher projections if the City acquires the UPS site in Red Hook (which is not currently part of the site). 

Picture from a massing exercise during EDC Public Workshop #3 representing 9,000 units of density on the uplands of the BMT site, showing the site in relation to adjacent neighborhoods. 

EDC’s reliance on housing as the main source of funding for non-housing related infrastructure repairs is not only unprecedented, but is opposed by the vast majority of stakeholders. There are real questions over how much space is needed for the working waterfront to produce the promised environmental and economic benefits, many of which simply cannot be answered at this stage of the process (especially given the nascent and untested Blue Highway). Housing impacts are somewhat easier to quantify, and yet EDC has presented no analysis to justify the proposed units beyond their revenue generating potential. Short-term financial constraints should not take precedence over the long-term impacts to the surrounding neighborhoods and the success of the maritime operations. 

Cruise Terminal

Moving the cruise terminal from Red Hook to the new marginal pier on Columbia is an option, but one that has gained little traction. Current proposals involve building a hotel at the existing site and other public activations for when there is no cruise ship docked.

Public Realm

The only proposal to address community demands for “improved local traffic, open space, waterfront access, and resiliency” is something called “the Spine”, a roadway that runs across the BMT site to separate the maritime and housing segments of the site where trucks can be re-routed from Van Brunt and presumably other local roads (EDC memo at 5). The Spine would create a storm surge barrier, and replace the bike and pedestrian greenway on Columbia, with sections elevated to provide views for bikers and pedestrians. There is a lot we don’t know about “the Spine”, and what we do know at this point suggests it is insufficient to address any of the community’s concerns. Notably, there have been ZERO proposals for changes to the BQE or any of the existing roadway infrastructure.

Depiction of “the Spine” from EDC presentation at Task Force Meeting #4 on December 18, 2024. EDC has yet to provide an actual conceptual design.

Timeline

The timeline has been extended again, and the Task Force is now expected to vote on a Vision Plan during the week of April 14th. It is EDC’s position that the project risks losing the committed Federal, State, and City funding if the Vision Plan is not approved ahead of the City and State budgets.