Brooklyn's Progress
November 2004

On Oct. 26, Brooklyn Chamber President Kenneth Adams testified before the Council of the City of New York Committee on Economic Development and the Select Committee on Waterfronts about “Oversight – The Future of the Cruise Line Industry in New York City:  Part II.”  The hearing was a follow-up to the first hearing about the Cruise Industry that was held in February.  Mr. Adams also testified at the first hearing.

Good afternoon.  My name is Kenneth Adams, President of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, a business assistance and economic development organization with over 1,200 Members.  The Brooklyn Chamber provides promotion, support and advocacy services to help Brooklyn businesses grow and to accelerate the economic development of our borough.

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce enthusiastically supports EDC’s efforts to develop a passenger ship terminal at Pier 12 in Red Hook to accommodate the growing cruise industry in New York City and to incorporate Brooklyn into this expansion. 

We also support this project as a critical element of the Bloomberg Administration’s plans to rebuild and revitalize Brooklyn’s waterfront from Newtown Creek in Greenpoint to 65th Street in Bay Ridge.

A cruise terminal at Pier 12 in Red Hook has the potential to add 600 new, good-paying local jobs at various skill levels – including union jobs – to Brooklyn’s economy in activities such as terminal operations, the provisioning of ships, logistics, land transportation, communications, professional services, and more. 

Since Brooklyn suffers from 7.3 % unemployment (August), this project (in which local government is making an investment to support a prosperous and growing industry) is vital to the borough’s job base.

Harder to predict but not to be discounted is the local economic impact from passenger expenditures.

According to the Brooklyn Labor Market Review released by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce in May of this year, tourism and related industries was identified as one of the three emerging growth sectors in the borough along with construction and the FIRE (financial, insurance, real estate) industries. 

According to our data, Brooklyn is well positioned to expand in all areas of the tourism sector, including museums and historical sites, restaurants and hotels and many entertainment related occupations.  Bringing cruise ships into Red Hook will help to further support this emerging industry, bringing people from other parts of New York and from other states to Brooklyn, and affording the borough an opportunity to capture additional tourism dollars as people eat in our restaurants, spend a night in our hotels and visit the many cultural institutions throughout Brooklyn.

We believe that the Cruise Terminal at Brooklyn Pier 12 will trigger new economic development and job creation in the Red Hook area and the borough in general.  And, this development will compliment ongoing area redevelopment efforts, such as Brooklyn Bridge Park, and take advantage of underutilized and unique maritime assets.
 
Thank you.