The end is finally near for the hulking CitiStorage building in what will soon be part of Bushwick Inlet Park.
Crews started demolishing the long-empty building this summer, and should be done by the end of the year, according to Mary Salig, the parks department’s director of North Brooklyn Parks.
Though the plot of land it sits on still has a long way to go before it can be used on the public park, the start of demolition is a sign of considerable progress at Bushwick Inlet Park.
Delays have become a hallmark of the project, which was first pitched nearly 20 years ago as part of the Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning. But the CitiStorage site, located at 60 Kent Ave., posed a particular problem.
The former owner of the site, developer Norm Brodsky, refused to sell the land for years — even after a fire destroyed the storage buildings. Finally, in 2016, then-mayor Bill de Blasio struck a deal and purchased the land for a whopping $160 million. It took another four years until de Blasio was able to put forward another $75 million for the development of the site.
“This has been an epic fight — but the Citi Storage facility is finally being demolished to make way for our long promised Bushwick Inlet Park,” wrote local council member Lincoln Restler on X last month. “Our community has been waiting too damn long for this promised park space and I’m thrilled about this milestone!”
Like the other parts of the park, the Citi Storage parcel will require testing and remediation for likely industrial contamination, Salig said. It’s not quite clear when that will be finished.
“We’re going to start testing as soon as we can with DEC after the building is down, but sometimes testing leads to more testing, and we just can’t put a timeline on that, and we won’t,” Salig explained.
Cleanup and mitigation will depend on what exactly is found and where. Before the CitiStorage facility, the lot was used as a manufactured gas plant and oil and petroleum storage – past assessments have found coal tar, oil remnants, and heavy metals at the site.
Once mitigation is done, and the contaminants have been removed or made unreachable by visitors, the parks department will finalize the design of the new park space. The Greenpoint-Williamsburg Open Space Master Plan has some guidelines based on past community meetings, Selig said, including a turf field and pathways for cyclists and pedestrians, but nothing will be finalized until they can meet with the community again to discuss its current wants and needs.
“Things potentially could change,” she said. “It’s all based on our community meetings and our scoping meetings and what’s possible at the site. It could be anything.”
As for funding, the $75 million allocated by de Blaso in 2021 is enough at least for the full demolition of the site.
“The funding that we currently have is what adequate to meet the needs that we have right now for the demolition of the building, and we’re working our way through it,” Salig said. “We are funded for the demo, we are working to complete that diligently, and then we will complete the remediation work.”
Two parcels of Bushwick Inlet Park, on either side of the CitiStorage site, are already done. 86 Kent Ave., directly south of the lot, has a large turf field, a playground, and views of the East River. On the other site, 50 Kent Ave. offers a large grassy area, seating, and a host of native flowers and plants.
When the CitiStorage site is finished, the three parcels become one, finished piece of Bushwick Inlet Park — something the community has been after for decades.
Katie Denny Horowitz, executive director of North Brooklyn Parks Alliance and co-chair of Brooklyn Community Board 1 Parks and Waterfront Committee, said the North Brooklyn community came together in a “unified outpouring of outrage” to secure the CitiStorage site back in 2016.
“Now, eight years after New York City acquired the property for $160M, we will finally see the fruits of that labor: unobstructed skyline views from the streetscape and a visible connection between the two finished Bushwick Inlet Park parcels at 50 Kent and 86 Kent Avenue,” she said in an email. “The demolition of CitiStorage is a monumental milestone toward completion of the 27-acre Bushwick Inlet Park, and is emblematic of the entire transformation of our waterfront, our historic battles to gain access to that water, and a reminder of the power of advocacy to enforce the promises of mayoral administrations.”
In the finished parts of the park, the city is working with the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance and Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park to plant new greenery and create pollinator gardens, Salig said.
The parks department is also working to develop the northernmost part of the park, the Motiva parcel on Franklin Street. Construction is set to finish next fall, according to the NYC Parks Capital Tracker. With work now in motion at CitiStorage, the last lot to be addressed will likely be the Bayside Oil site.
Salig’s joined the parks department in 2000, and has been in her current role since 2016, she said. From her office inside Bushwick Inlet Park, she can see “countless people” stream in and out each day.
“Just seeing the way that people use these spaces, it’s something that this community needs but also has desired,” she said. “It fits that desire for the community to access nature.”
