New Zoning Tool at 25 Kent But Broader Discussion of City Industrial Policy Needed

Today, the Council will vote on a new model of mixed industrial / commercial development in the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Industrial Business Zone. The project, 25 Kent Avenue, is the first to utilize the Industrial Business Incentive Area (IBIA) zoning tool, which combines required light manufacturing uses in exchange for office and commercial development. The City Council should be commended for its continued recognition of the importance of industrial and manufacturing jobs to the economic vitality of New York.

As a result of advocacy by ANHD, Pratt Center, and citywide industrial stakeholders, the final version of this proposal includes refined definitions of industrial uses as well as added crucial enforcement and monitoring language, ensuring light manufacturing uses are actually the ones using the space required in the 25 Kent Avenue project. We worked with the Council, the Brooklyn Borough President’s office, Brooklyn Community Board 1, and City Planning to refine this proposal and ensure that the efforts to test this experimental and untested zoning tool took into account impacts on future industrial development and the broader sector.

Despite this new zoning tool moving forward, the broader problems threatening industrial and manufacturing businesses (and the quality jobs they create) are largely unresolved. Affordability of industrial rents and the lack of tools and resources to support our industrial businesses continually threatens to send jobs to New Jersey. The rents are driven higher by the current allowance of incompatible uses like hotels and big box storage in manufacturing zones across the city, including inside Industrial Business Zones. While the honing of the IBIA model at 25 Kent represents a new mechanism in the City’s toolkit to support industrial and manufacturing in a particular neighborhood, there is need for additional tools that are applicable throughout the city.

Because of the low barriers to entry and strong wages, the industrial and manufacturing sector is a key factor in creating a more equitable city. ANHD thanks Council Member Levin for his tireless advocacy on this issue and looks forward to future collaboration with both the Council and Administration on implementing industrial and manufacturing policies that create economic opportunities for all New Yorkers.