Sale of 16-acre Gravesend site draws ire
News raises questions about longstanding plans for sanitation depot
BY ROSE ADAMS
This is trash!
National Grid is looking to
sell a massive lot in Gravesend
to a private developer, which
could build a mall or manufacturing
hub on the property —
dashing the dreams of locals,
who hoped the space would be
used for a new sanitation garage
instead.
The lot — located between
the Belt Parkway and Coney
Island Creek — is zoned for
heavy industry, meaning it
could house a factory, recycling
plant, or large-scale retail if its
prospective owners get a zoning
variance approved, according
to real estate company JLL,
who National Grid enlisted to
sell the property.
National Grid’s predecessor,
Brooklyn Borough Gas
Company, acquired the 12
football fi elds worth of land in
the early 1900s, and operated a
manufactured gas plant there
from then until the 1960s.
Brooklyn Union Gas later
acquired the Brooklyn Borough
Gas Company, and years
after the plant’s demolition,
the state’s Department of Conservation
COURIER L 16 IFE, DECEMBER 25-31, 2020
forced the company
to fund a remediation of the
land, which had been heavily
contaminated with gas, pesticides,
and other harmful toxins.
National Grid took over
Brooklyn Union Gas in 2006.
As Crain’s fi rst reported,
JLL says that the remediated
land is now ready for development
— but community groups
have lamented the possible
sale to a private entity, saying
that the city has promised to
build two desperately-needed
sanitation garages on the lot
for more than 36 years.
“I can’t believe they ended
up selling it when that was
meant for our garage for the
longest time, and now it’s too
late,” said Theresa Scavo, the
chairwoman of Sheepshead
Bay’s Community Board 15.
Unlike many Manhattan
sanitation districts that are
equipped with snazzy, glassclad
garages, Sheepshead
Bay’s sanitation employees
have been working out of trailers
on Knapp Street for more
than ten years, Scavo said.
“There’s no garage — it’s
just an open fi eld,” she said.
“The trailers have been there
since before Sandy. They’ve
been there for years.”
Coney Islanders have also
been looking forward for the
new three- or four-story garage,
which would have allowed their
local sanitation department to
move its garbage trucks and
other equipment out of its beaten
down facility on Neptune
Avenue and W. 21st Street, according
to one local maven.
“When the homes were built
back there (West 21st) about
25 to 30 years ago, residents
were told that the garage was
moving ‘soon,'” said local environmentalist
Ida Sanoff. “It
was to move to this location, on
the creek, but fi rst the new location
had to be remediated.”
A spokeswoman from the
Department of Sanitation confi
rmed that the new garage
had been in the works for decades,
but said the city never
funded its construction or
other necessary upgrades.
“We have previously expressed
interest in developing
a garage on that property, and
have had Uniform Land Use
Review Procedure approval to
do so since 1984 which was reaffi
rmed in 2006,” said Belinda
Mager. “In 2014, National Grid
conducted a Request for Proposal
for redevelopment of the
site, through which the city
was selected to construct a
new Sanitation garage to serve
districts 13 and 15. However,
we are not funded to construct
a new garage at that location.”
Mager added that, despite
the 36-year setback, a new
sanitation garage for the two
southern Brooklyn neighborhoods
is still in the works.
“It is our long term goal to
construct a new, modern garage
to house both districts,”
she said. “However, we are not
funded to do so at this time.”
Now that the National Grid
site is off the table, Scavo fears
that there is no other spot that
could accommodate the sanitation
storage needed for the
swath of southern Brooklyn.
“I can’t think of another location
that’s within both borders
to share a garage,” she
said.
TRASH TALK: National Grid is looking to sell a 16-acre lot in Gravesend
that was formerly a manufactured gas plant — and that long stood to
serve as a sanitation depot for southern Brooklyn. JLL
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