Deal Allows Development in Brooklyn Bridge Park (original) (raw)

New York|Deal Allows Development in Brooklyn Bridge Park

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/nyregion/deal-allows-development-in-brooklyn-bridge-park.html

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May 22, 2012

A long-simmering dispute over the relocation of a cutting-edge theater to Brooklyn Bridge Park has been resolved by a sweeping agreement among city officials, state lawmakers and several nonprofit groups, paving the way for the theater’s eventual move while expanding the park.

The agreement comes as part of a settlement of lawsuits brought by neighborhood groups that had challenged a city, state and federal decision to turn over a historic structure in the park, called the Tobacco Warehouse, to the theater, St. Ann’s Warehouse. The groups had argued that the move would set a precedent, leaving other parkland vulnerable to private development. In two rulings, state and federal judges agreed.

But on Monday, a laundry list of government agencies and nonprofit groups outlined their agreement, which would allow for the development of the Tobacco Warehouse, a Civil War-era structure that is now a brick shell, into a cultural venue, and the neighboring Empire Stores, another historic building in the park, into a retail complex.

St. Ann’s, which has operated in Dumbo across Water Street from the park since 2000, was conditionally named as the designated tenant for the Tobacco Warehouse. The theater plans to move this fall into another location, but its leaders have long sought a Brooklyn Bridge Park address.

At the same time, the agreement identified land in the form of city-owned property beneath the Manhattan Bridge that will be added to the park. Two state lawmakers, Senator Daniel L. Squadron and Assemblywoman Joan L. Millman, who helped negotiate the agreement, insisted on the creation of a community advisory committee to help plan the new parkland, which measures about one acre.

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The shell of a Civil War-era tobacco warehouse in Brooklyn Bridge Park may house a theater.Credit...Philip Greenberg for The New York Times

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