Environmental Assessment For Empire Stores and Tobacco Warehouse Released; Public Hearing Next Thursday

The Brooklyn Heights Association has advised us that an Environmental Assessment has been completed concerning the proposed adaptive re-use of the Empire Stores and Tobacco Warehouse buildings, located along Water Street in the Fulton Ferry Historic District and DUMBO. Links to the Environmental Assessment and Draft Conversion Application are here; they may also be reviewed in hard copy at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s offices, 334 Furman Street. A public hearing on the environmental assessment will be held next Thursday, June 20 at 6:00 p.m. at NYU Poly, 6 Metrotech Center, Room RH 116.

This information was provided by Brooklyn Bridge Park:

Greetings from Brooklyn Bridge Park. The Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed conversion of approximately 2.652 acres of the former Empire Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn, including the Empire Stores and the Tobacco Warehouse, under Section 6(f)(3) of the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund Act (LWCFA) has been released by the City of New York and is now available for public review and comment. The proposed conversion would remove protections limiting use of this property to outdoor recreation to allow for the adaptive reuse of the Empire Stores and the Tobacco Warehouse. As required by Section 6(f), 0.863 acres of land bordered by Adams Street, Plymouth Street and the Main Street section of Brooklyn Bridge Park, and currently used by the City of New York, will be added to the land protected by Section 6(f) and to Brooklyn Bridge Park for outdoor recreation and other Section 6(f) allowable uses. This action must be approved by the National Park Service (NPS). The EA, which considers the potential environmental impacts from this proposed action, was prepared by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, in cooperation with the City of New York, for NPS as lead agency, in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended.

Written comments on the Environmental Assessment or the Draft Conversion Application will be received until 5:00 p.m Friday, July 5 at Brooklyn Bridge Park, 334 Furman Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, or at conversionpubliccomment@bbpnyc.org

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  • William Goodman

    This would appear to leave the possibility for commercial uses wide open. Hopefully most of the ground floor space can remain solely accessible to the public. I understand Brooklyn has one of the lowest proportions of public space of any city in the country.

  • ursulahahn

    Certainly the lowest amount of park/recreational space per capita of the five boroughs when Brooklyn Bridge Park was envisioned. How that ratio has changed in the meantime, I don’t know.

  • stuart

    and who will pay?
    the tooth fairy?

  • Sylvester

    stuart, as an advocate of private real estate developers, are you trying to pull teeth (public-space) out of the communities mouths again?

  • republicanbiker

    Anything that happens with Empire Stores will certainly be an improvement over what is there now. This is not the time for us to go NIMBY on the project.