Sunset Park officials skeptical about plans for Made in NY hub

Elected officials representing Sunset Park have expressed hesitation over Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plans to transform part of Bush Terminal into a new hub for the city’s fashion and film industries, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports.

In a letter addressed to the Mayor, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, City Council member Carlos Menchaca, and Congress members Nydia Velazquez and Jerrold Nadler have asked that the Mayor be mindful of the effects of gentrification on Sunset Park, and ensure that longterm residents don’t get displaced due to large-scale projects like the Made in NY campus at Bush Terminal.

The Brooklyn Eagle has broken down some of the salient features of this letter and they include ensuring that local stakeholders are involved in the planning process, to develop a full-scale plan for the Sunset Park manufacturing area as a whole, and to consider the reactivation of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal concurrent with this new campus.

Since the announcement of the new fashion hub during the Mayor’s State of the City address on Monday, some groups in the neighborhood like Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation (SBIDC) have come out in support of the proposal, according to The Eagle. This new campus, which is scheduled to open in 2020, will eventually create 1,500 jobs, according to the Mayor’s office.

• Pols express worry over de Blasio Sunset Park plan [BDE]
• Sunset Park will become home to a sprawling hub for NYC's fashion industry [Curbed]