Brooklyn's Progress
June/July 2005

By Harold Egeln

The day after his administration revealed a grand plan to revitalize the Brooklyn waterfront along Greenpoint and Williamsburg with a mix of new residential, commercial and recreational developments, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg spoke of the borough's continuing ecomomic growth at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Business Breakfast and Small Business Trade Show on May 3 in Williamsburg.

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been invested in Brooklyn," said the Mayor, speaking at The Rose Castle before a cross-section of business people and leaders there for the sold-out Chamber event.  "Brooklyn is really on a roll."

The newly announced city plan to rezone a 175-block area of Greenpoint and Williamburg between Newtown Creek and the Willamsburg Bridge, on the scale of Battery Park City, is a capstone project for Brooklyn, as the Mayor discussed this and other current and future projects.

"The Atlantic Yards Development will create 8,500 permanent jobs," said Mayor Bloomberg, as he noted all the major projects to spur Brooklyn business, part of a strategy for "a more economically diverse Brooklyn."

This includes the Atlantic Terminal Mall; the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where he forecast 800 new manufacturing and warehouse jobs, 600 new jobs to Red Hook and 100 new jobs on the Sunset Park waterfront, site of Community Board 7's Revitalization Plan now being reviewed by the Department of City Planning. "What is happening in this city is amazing," Mayor Bloomberg said.

Brooklyn, he noted, will become "the biggest film production site on the East Coast" with new movie studios rivaling Hollywood.  "This will become the movie capital of the world." A new 300-seat theater next to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is in the works, also, through a public and private sector partnership.

"There's been a major revival of retail businesses throughout Brooklyn," said Mayor Bloomberg, citing Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Terminal Mall and Lowe's Home Improvement Center as just a few major examples.

The Mayor also mentioned the importance of expanding more affordable housing, the dramatic improvement of public safety and the increase of financial services in Brooklyn, and encouragement of new jobs in East New York.

He noted the big role of the NYC Business Solutions Center at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce for all its work and efforts in fostering economic development and new commercial opportunities for a diverse business base.