USA, NY: Brooklyn Brewery building a new brewery
In a move that will both boost food and beverage manufacturing and create greater public access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation announced on May 16 that Brooklyn Brewery is expanding its operations and building a new brewery, headquarters and rooftop restaurant and beer garden at the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Building 77, Brooklyn Daily Eagle said.
The de Blasio administration has invested more than $100 million to transform Building 77 into a 1 million-square-foot manufacturing center. Brooklyn Brewery will employ 124 people at the Yard, with the long-term goal of creating an additional 100 jobs.
“Brooklyn Brewery is a welcome addition to the Yard’s growing roster, bringing along with it more than a hundred quality jobs and some of the best brews our city has to offer,” said de Blasio.
Brooklyn Brewery, which opened its first brewery in Williamsburg 20 years ago, will lease a total of 75,000 square feet in the building, which is now undergoing a $185 million redevelopment. It joins anchor tenant Russ & Daughters in the ground-floor food manufacturing hub, as well as other food manufacturers including chocolate maker Mast Brothers and coffee maker Brooklyn Roasting Company — both of which have recently announced plans to open manufacturing facilities at the Brooklyn Navy Yard — in the Yard more broadly. The brewery will produce 50,000 barrels annually at the Yard.
Brooklyn Brewery’s expansion plans include a rooftop restaurant and beer garden at the Navy Yard.
“The brewery will play a pivotal role in creating a vibrant publicly accessible food manufacturing and retail hub on the ground floor, while the rooftop beer garden and restaurant will be a welcome place for tenants and community members to relax, collaborate and meet,” said Brooklyn Navy Yard President and CEO David Ehrenberg. “The brewery will also help attract and support the next generation of food and beverage entrepreneurs to the Yard.”
“The Navy Yard gives us a future in Brooklyn. It’s incredible to see what’s grown around us here in Brooklyn, and our long-term lease at the Yard will ensure a presence in Brooklyn alongside many similar Brooklyn entrepreneurial success stories,” said Brooklyn Brewery founder Steve Hindy.
The $185 million renovation of Building 77 will convert 1 million square feet of underutilized storage space into a state of the art manufacturing, tech and design hub. When completed in early 2017, the building will add 3,000 jobs.
“Brooklyn Brewery has played an important role in building the Brooklyn brand as a standard of excellence known to consumers around the world,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams. “Its headquarters at the Brooklyn Navy Yard will provide good jobs that are accessible to public housing residents in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Fort Greene, helping the popularity of our brand translate into prosperity for more Brooklynites.”
In addition to the Navy Yard site, which will become operational in early 2018, the company is hoping to build a large brewery in Staten Island to handle production that is now done in Utica, N.Y., according to Brooklyn Brewery CEO Eric Ottaway. The brewery will maintain its brewing operations in its original site in Williamsburg until its leases expire in 2025. Ottaway said the company is hoping to extend that lease beyond 2025 and maintain a presence in Williamsburg.
"The Brooklyn Brewery will be help to further stimulate the economy and create jobs, and I can already see it becoming the next big thing, the next awesome place to go,” said state Sen. Marty Golden.
U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez, ranking Democrat of the Committee on Small Business, said, “Brooklyn Brewery is a New York original and an institution in our neighborhood and borough. This announcement is great news for our community. It will mean additional, well-paying local jobs and will further contribute to this growing, thriving hub of entrepreneurship.”
“The addition of Brooklyn Brewery to the growing number of tenants at the Yard will boost our borough’s economic growth, spur innovation and create new opportunities for area residents — particularly women, public housing residents and our youth,” said Councilmember Laurie A. Cumbo.
To encourage Brooklyn Brewery to expand its New York City operations, the New York City Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) has designated the multi-borough expansion as a priority project for two straight years.
“Brooklyn Brewery has been at the forefront of Brooklyn’s revitalization, and it's exciting to see them expand to the iconic Brooklyn Navy Yard, which was a historic manufacturing site and is now a modern industrial center,” said Winston Fisher, co-chair of the New York City REDC.
The Brooklyn Brewery’s Navy Yard and Staten Island breweries are being designed by Davis Brody Bond, a leading design firm whose significant achievements include the National September 11 Memorial Museum and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
17 May, 2016
