Sunset Park’s future debated at Industry City rezoning hearing

Amid the back and forth members of Protect Sunset Park, a grassroots group that staunchly opposes the rezoning, held up posters scrawled with “rezoning = real estate speculation” and “climate jobs.” The latter is a nod to an 88-page plan put forward by Uprose that calls for the creation of the Green Resilient Industrial District (GRID). The plan seeks to preserve the industrial and maritime character of the neighborhood and foster the creation and retention of well-paying blue-collar jobs with supportive training. It also looks to support green industrial innovation and to promote climate resiliency.

“What Industry City is doing in Sunset Park has been done all over the city; the city’s invaluable industrial manufacturing spaces have become sacrificial for developers greed,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, the executive director of Uprose. “If Industry City wants to develop and make a profit in Sunset Park they need to follow the community led vision.”

Brooklyn pol ‘unequivocally against’ Industry City rezoning without neighborhood investments

The plan has faced fierce pushback from community groups such as Uprose, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization, and the Protect Sunset Park Coalition. Locals argue that Industry City’s push to increase its footprint and allow for an additional 900,000 square feet of retail space, 600,000 square feet for classrooms and educational facilities, and a pair of hotels with more than 400 rooms, will further ramp up rents and push out long-time locals.

“There’s nothing, nothing innovative about what’s happening on this waterfront because gentrification is old,” Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of Uprose, told a gathering of protestors ahead of Monday’s town hall.

Industry City rezoning is ‘dead on arrival’ if the process isn’t delayed, says council member

Sunset Park City Council member Carlos Menchaca is threatening to kill Industry City’s plans to rezone the massive complex unless the landlord delays the process. Read more

Industry City kicks off long-awaited rezoning process

A rezoning of Industry City is poised to transform one of Brooklyn’s last industrial strongholds into a mecca of hotels, shops, and educational spaces. Read more

Rezoning of Sunset Park's Industry City complex is on the horizon

Industry City’s next phase of expansion is now officially set to move forward. The owners of the 16-building complex in Sunset Park will formally enter into the city’s rezoning process tomorrow. They will present their plans at a public meeting to be held at the City Planning Commission, as part of a pre-certification process for such rezonings.

Based on the feedback acquired at the meeting, the developers will create an environmental impact statement. If the city approves the findings from that study, the project will then officially enter into the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), most likely in the Spring of 2018, and then spend another six-seven months in that public review process, if it is approved.