Green Initiatives Bring New Jobs to Brooklyn Navy Yard

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Sunday announced the opening of the Perry Avenue Building and plans to establish the Duggal Greenhouse at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Green Initiatives Bring New Jobs to Brooklyn Navy Yard
4/12/2009
Updated:
4/12/2009
NEW YORK—New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Sunday announced the opening of the Perry Avenue Building and plans to establish the Duggal Greenhouse at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which are part of the City’s Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan to create jobs and facilitate long-term economic growth. The green initiatives are poised to bring 1,700 new permanent jobs and 800 construction jobs to the region.

The Mayor was joined by the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert C. Lieber, Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation chairman Alan Fishman, and president Andrew H. Kimball, Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz, Council Members Leticia James, and David Yassky and Assembly Member Joseph R. Lentol.

The City has implemented a $250 million capital funding program to upgrade the infrastructure and add 1.5 million square feet of new space at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Approximately $35 million, including $5 million of federal stimulus funds, has been invested to improve nearby roadways, and water and sewer systems.

“The Brooklyn Navy Yard has been enormously successful providing a haven for small industrial businesses that help diversify the City’s economy. Today, it’s becoming a national model for the development of a sustainable industrial district,” stated Mayor Bloomberg. “Part of our Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan is to invest in the creation of green jobs. Of the 1,700 new permanent jobs we’re creating at the Navy Yard, 40 percent will be in green manufacturing. The sustainable developments at the Navy Yard show that PlaNYC’s goals of green buildings and renewable energy make sense economically as well as environmentally,” he continued.

The $25 million Perry Avenue Building, slated to receive LEED Gold certification, is the first multi-story green industrial facility in the nation. The three-story, 89,000-square-foot facility includes rooftop solar panels and the first permanent building-mounted wind turbines in the City for providing electricity, reflective roofing and pavement for reducing surface temperatures, recycled rain water use in toilets, recycled building materials, high-efficiency lighting, natural ventilation systems, and special accommodation for bicyclists and low-emission vehicles. It will be leased to SurroundArt for creation of a Museum Resource Campus for the art industry.

The $7 million Duggal Greenhouse will be constructed through conversion of a one-story, 30,000-square-foot building into a two-story, 60,000-square-foot LEED Platinum certified facility starting in late spring. The facility, which is funded by $5 million from Duggal Visual Solutions and $2 million from the City, will be used for manufacturing of eco-friendly products and as a laboratory for new sustainable products.

The B&H Photo-Video Distribution Center, Steiner Studios and Agger Fish Processing Plant facilities are also scheduled to undergo remodeling and expansion this year, as part of the City’s efforts to increase LEED certified buildings in the area.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation also plans to install 90 Duggal wind- and solar-powered street lights, which will reduce their electricity bills by about $600,000 dollars in the first year and $11,000 per year thereafter.

“Everyone in America is talking about creating ‘green-collar’ jobs. In Brooklyn, we’re doing it,” said Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation chairman Alan Fishman. “Despite being one of the oldest collections of industrial buildings in New York, the Yard is now a thriving hub of 21st-century green manufacturing,” he added.

“The City’s most-successful industrial park is fast becoming the ‘greenest’ urban industrial center in America,” noted the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation president Andrew H. Kimball. “The opportunities for green industrial development at the Brooklyn Navy Yard are enormous thanks to the investments made by the Bloomberg Administration to upgrade the Yard’s basic infrastructure. Green infrastructure and building investments not only make us a better neighbor to surrounding communities and help improve the City’s environment, but they also make us the destination of choice for green manufacturers,” he added.