Owner of Red Hook waterfront terminal asks city to consider his site for Brooklyn-Queens Streetcar railyard

Just yesterday, 6sqft took a look at reports that the Brooklyn-Queens streetcar will require a train yard/maintenance facility that will likely take up an entire city block and cost around $100 million (which is included in the $2.5 billion overall cost). Finding such a large swath of available real estate would be challenging, but a local industrialist wants to ease the burden by offering up his own property.

Crain’s tells us that John Quadrozzi Jr., owner of the GBX Gowanus Bay Terminal on the Red Hook waterfront, wants the city to consider his site to host the train yard. The Terminal, which was originally constructed in 1922 as the New York Port Authority Grain Terminal, is a 13-acre shipping depot with an additional 33 acres of underwater property that’s used for concerts, film shoots, and commercial offices, and it’s expected to be very close to the streetcar’s route.

Gowanus Bay Terminal via Michael Tapp/Flickr

As 6sqft noted, “Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, the nonprofit that championed the [streetcar] plan early on, believes building two maintenance facilities at a total cost of $100 million and taking up roughly five acres is most realistic.” Quadrozzi feels that using his site would alleviate any potential opposition to building a new structure: “We’re an industrial facility and we want to stick to those types of uses. Plus, we’re right along the run.” And despite some concerns that the project is too costly or logistically cumbersome, he’s a strong proponent: “It’s something that has multiple benefits. It is not only addressing communities that are undeserved by public transit, but also gives people access to jobs at a location like ours, which is difficult to get to.” Previous reports stated that the streetcar would provide access for about 45,000 public-housing residents.

The proposed route

The city is still studying the best streetcar route, but preliminary plans call for a 16-mile route from Astoria to Sunset Park. Since Red Hook is near the southern terminus, the first phase of construction would have to begin here, as the train yard would be necessary to service whatever section gets built first.

[Via Crain’s]

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