Industry City Withdraws Historic Rezoning Application

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — Industry City leaders pulled their application to rezone their 35-acre complex on Tuesday, just hours after several Brooklyn lawmakers came out against the proposal.

"...It is clear that the current political environment and a lack of leadership precludes a path forward for our rezoning proposal," CEO Andrew Kimball said in a statement.

The withdrawal, first reported by Politico, comes just a week after the controversial plan to transform the Sunset Park campus faced City Council for the first time.

Just hours before the news broke, a cohort of 10 U.S. representatives and state lawmakers from Brooklyn urged City Council not to approve the project, citing local Council Member Carlos Menchaca's opposition to the plan.

“We urge you to support this community by respecting the decision of the local City Council Member who represents their interests," they said in a letter.

The plan to change zoning rules at Industry City to allow for more than 1 million square feet of development on the waterfront campus has been in the works for seven years.

It most recently won the approval of the City Planning Commission.

Supporters and the developers behind the plan have pointed to it as a needed boost to New York City's fight to maintain its manufacturing industry and its struggling post-coronavirus economy. Developers say it would bring 20,000 jobs to the neighborhood.

But opponents say the rezoning, instead of providing jobs for residents, will bring displacement to the largely working class, immigrant community.

Activist groups have pushed for a publicly-led transformation of the Sunset Park waterfront instead of the private developer's proposal, a sentiment the Brooklyn lawmakers underscored in their letter to City Council on Tuesday.

“Now it’s time for City Hall leaders to do their job," Antoinette Martinez, an organizer with the group Protect Sunset Park said Tuesday. "Instead of prioritizing racist rezonings seeking to replace working-class communities we need a public waterfront plan to uplift working people throughout New York, from Sunset Park to Flushing!”

Menchaca's opposition to the rezoning came earlier this year after Industry City submitted their application before signing a legal agreement to several conditions laid out by the council member, including eliminating two hotels, limiting retail and adding a high school to the rezoning. Industry City leaders have insisted they are committed to the conditions despite the lack of a "community benefits agreement" coming to fruition before submitting the application.

Kimball alluded to those promises on Tuesday, which include an offer that should the rezoning be approved, Industry City would have been legally barred from expanding its space should it not prove job growth for local residents.

But the political climate, he said, made opposition to the project insurmountable.

"Over and over, we have heard from key decision makers that while the substance of the project is strong, the politics of the moment do not allow them to support any private development project," he said.

Industry City will instead continue with "as-of-right leasing options," Kimball said.

He has said throughout the application process that without the rezoning Industry City would likely move ahead with building office space and what is known as "last-mile manufacturing," or warehouses used to house products for immediate online shopping delivery.

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