Testimony Re: Redevelopment of Brooklyn Marine Terminal

Re: Redevelopment of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal

Pratt Center for Community Development works for a more just, equitable and sustainable New York City through participatory planning, applied research, and policy advocacy in collaboration with community-based organizations. We are a member of the Community Development and Housing Advisory Committee for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal (BMT) Vision Plan, and we are submitting this testimony to express our concerns about its affordable housing component. While we are not explicitly commenting on the other aspects of the plan here, we believe that the plan’s affordable housing goals must be balanced with the need to preserve and expand manufacturing and maritime jobs on the site.

As a massive, 122-acre waterfront site, redeveloping the BMT will have major ramifications on the neighborhoods that surround it and the city as a whole. As publicly-owned land, it is imperative that it be used for a public purpose, delivering a robust program of public benefits that includes permanently income-restricted housing that is affordable to low- and moderate-income households and families. While the plan goes beyond MIH and mandates that 35% of the housing units be permanently affordable, additional commitments are required to ensure a meaningful level of public good that puts a dent in the city’s affordable housing crisis.

Pratt Center supports Fifth Avenue Committee’s advocacy and calls on the EDC to:

Commit to creating family-sized housing units.  Three-bedroom units, particularly income-restricted ones, are in short supply across the city. Affordable housing lotteries tend to skew heavily to studio and one-bedroom apartments because they are cheaper for developers to build. According to a 2024 analysis of HPD data by Gothamist, 70% of affordable apartments built under Mayor Adams were studios and one-bedrooms. There is a valuable opportunity to address this imbalance, and the plan needs to make a clear, numerical commitment for the family-sized units it will deliver.   

Cap AMI at 100%.  Redeveloping the BMT site also represents an important opportunity to create deeply affordable housing that caters to extremely low-, very low-, and low-income households. As such, AMI levels should be capped at 100% AMI, or an annual income of $145,800 for a three-person family.

Deploy NYCHA- and affordable housing-related financial commitments in the near-term.  The $200 million dollar commitment for capital upgrades at NYCHA Red Hook Houses and the $50 million commitment to establish a fund for off-site preservation and creation of affordable housing are key components of the plan. The money for NYCHA is long overdue, and the lack of repairs has real, negative impacts on people’s lives. These financial commitments should be deployed in the first phase of development and not depend on private housing to be built in order to materialize.

Finally, we urge the City to consider mechanisms to ensure long-term public oversight and enforceability of public commitments. In summary, redeveloping the publicly-owned BMT site requires the City to rise to the occasion and advance housing justice by building meaningful levels of deeply affordable housing on and off-site and making long-needed repairs to nearby public housing. 

For more information, contact

PAULA CRESPO
Senior Planner
Pratt Center for Community Development

Note: This testimony reflects the position of Pratt Center for Community Development and not necessarily Pratt Institute.