Red Hook Waterfront Plant Appears Dead: Container Port to Stay

The plan to boot out the Red Hook Container Port and to redevelop the waterfront property for a variety of uses appears dead. The Daily News reports that City Hall has dropped its plan to evict the container port. The operator, American Stevedoring, had put up a significant fight to stay. The News reports:

Red Hook's waterfront will remain a working port, due to an unexpected about-face by City Hall on its longstanding plans to evict a container port operator, sources said.

The Bloomberg administration's plans had called for expanding cruise ship operations, but a recent shuffle among top executives at the Economic Development Corp. appears to have prompted the course change, those familiar with the plan said.

"The good guys have won here," said Robert Varley, chief of staff for Councilman Mike Nelson (D-Sheepshead Bay), who heads the waterfront committee.

Observers familiar with the development plans said the Bloomberg administration had been entirely against continuing container port operations in Brooklyn until last week.

But the $56 million cruise ship terminal in Red Hook has failed to provide the expected number of jobs. One year into operation, the terminal employed only 14 people full-time, the Daily News reported in April. The EDC in 2005 had promised 370.

The job figures--370 promised, but only 14 actual ones--should serve as a cautionary tale to anyone considering those economic impact studies that are produced to support projects and public subsidies. Decades of economic development practice around the nation are full of such contrasts between projections and reality. In any case, the final Red Hook wrinkle is that the city may want to open up bidding for firms to run the port.