Brooklyn's Progress
August/September 2005

By Kenneth Adams and Khadija Batuta

Brooklyn recently lost one of its great business and civic leaders, Dominick Massa.  He died of cancer on July 6 at a hospital in Florida at the age of 59.

Best known in the business community as the founder and president of Harborside Management, a real estate development and management firm he established to re-develop the Sunset Park waterfront, Mr. Massa was active in Brooklyn civic life and worked hard to support industrial businesses and jobs in the borough.

For many years, he served as Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.  He was a long-time Member and supporter of the organization.  Mr. Massa was also the founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation (SWBIDC), and was active on Community Board 7 (Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace). 

"Dominick was raised in Sunset Park, had his business in Sunset Park and worked tirelessly for the betterment of the neighborhood.  He had a positive impact on everything related to Sunset Park's waterfront," said Joan Botti, Second Vice Chair of Community Board 7.

To promote Brooklyn manufacturing businesses, he launched Brooklyn Works – a trade show featuring Brooklyn made goods.  The Brooklyn Works sign still hangs off the side of the Port Authority’s shed on Pier 1, visible from the Brooklyn Bridge roadway above, a legacy of Mr. Massa’s advocacy for the borough’s industrial base.

In an interview in The New York Times in 1987, Mr. Massa explained his lifelong connection to the Sunset Park waterfront.  His grandfather was a carpenter in Bush Terminal, the industrial complex built by Irving Bush.  Mr. Massa’s mother and father both worked in factories in the Bush Terminal area, and Mr. Massa took their lunches to them there as a boy.

In 1999, he told City Limits, "I used to sneak into this terminal as a kid to watch all the action.  There were thousands of workers, freight cars everywhere, trucks lined up for two blocks to get in. The ships were unloading cocoa, coffee, wine, cheese, oil, everything from soup to nuts."

In 1989, when Mr. Massa gave up his trucking business to make his mark in real estate development, the vibrant industrial waterfront of his youth had become a vacant wasteland of industrial blight.  Piers, warehouses and infrastructure had long been abandoned.  The area’s buildings, once brimming with factories and their workers, were now occupied by drug dealers, prostitutes and squatters.  Junked cars, broken windows and debris littered the neighborhood.  Mr. Massa took it upon himself to clean it all up and bring the area back to life.

He told The New York Times, "The roofs were out, there were 2,700 dumpsters of garbage to take out, 100 abandoned cars…we went $100 million in the hole. But I had a belief that Brooklyn could revive itself. I was standing on the piers with Howard Golden, and Golden put his arm around my shoulder and said, 'go for it.'"

Mr. Massa leased 10 blocks of the Bush Terminal area from New York City in 1989 and began to restore the buildings and attract new businesses.  Mr. Massa’s Harborside Management took over and eventually refurbished 16 buildings with one million square feet of industrial space along the waterfront from 41st to 51st Streets.  The complex included industrial lofts, rail yards and piers.  Brooklyn Chamber Members and civic and political leaders who toured the complex with Mr. Massa when he had restored the buildings and filled them with tenants were amazed at the area’s transformation.

“What he did was important for Brooklyn and it wasn’t at all easy,” explained former Borough President Howard Golden.  “He had a vision for rebuilding the area, he worked hard and he made it happen.  Today, thousands of people go to work in those buildings that he restored because of his vision and his roots in the neighborhood.  He made a tremendous difference.  The Borough of Brooklyn owes Dominick Massa our gratitude.”

“Dominick Massa, by his own grit, determination and hard work, led the revitalization of Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront and brought an entire neighborhood back to life,” added Kenneth Adams, President of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.  “Others have rebuilt areas like this for residential development, but Dominick fought for jobs and industry, in a changing economy and under tough conditions, and restored this part of Brooklyn for commerce.”

The Brooklyn Chamber was itself a tenant of Harborside Management.  In an effort to support the borough’s garment manufacturing sector, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce built a garment manufacturing incubator in space provided by Mr. Massa. Brooklyn Mills is a 27,000 square-foot garment manufacturing center with low overhead and shared facilities.  The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce was commissioned to build the center by former Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden, who provided the capital funds required.  The NYS Assembly and Senate stepped in to fund equipment.  By allocating government funds for its construction and fit out, and thanks to Mr. Massa providing industrial space at below-market rent, Brooklyn Mills is able to offer an attractive, cost-saving alternative to the six participating firms.  When Mr. Massa retired to Florida, the NYC Economic Development Corporation took over the operation of Brooklyn Mills.

Dominick Massa is survived by his mother, Frances; two children, a daughter, Michele Wirth and a son, Michael Massa; four grandchildren; a brother, and a sister.  Services were held on July 11, at St. Michael’s Church in Brooklyn.  Mr. Massa was laid to rest in Greenwood Cemetery next to his father, Michael.

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, staff and Membership send heartfelt sympathies to his family and friends.