Locals Try To Stop UPS Tear-Down Of Historic Red Hook Building

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN — A local fight started this week aims to save a historic building on Coffey Street, which has been slated for demolition to make room for UPS's newest Brooklyn facility.

Red Hook residents who put up a petition on Wednesday have already gained 437 of their 500-signature goal to prevent the 19th-century former Lidgerwood Manufacturing building from being torn down by the United Parcel Service, who bought the property as part of a 350,000-square-foot complex it purchased in December. A full-demolition application for the building was filed in March and is pending approval, a Department of Building spokeswoman said.

The neighbors plan to send the petition to a list of city agencies once their goal is reached, said Gita Nandan, who first put up the petition. But the real goal, she added, is to reach UPS executives and see if they can come to a compromise.

"It makes sense to be face to face — we want this to not be a confrontational thing, we want to have a conversation," she said. "I worry that someone is in an office somewhere just not really realizing what is here."

What is there, Nandan said, is a reminder of Brooklyn's industrial roots and a beloved part of the waterfront's character.

The Lidgerwood Manufacturing Company, started in 1873, took up an entire block in the waterfront neighborhood. The 202 Coffey Street building was built in 1882 as part of its factory plant, which made equipment that was used in building the Panama Canal, the main dam for the Croton Falls reservoir and dock building, according to a history of the site.

But aside from its professional history, the building has also become a visual part of the neighborhood's unique character, Nandan said.

"The red brick length of the building abuts the north end of Valentino Pier Park and is an iconic moment in our waterfront neighborhood, where visitors come to view the Statue of Liberty, families picnic, dogs run, and a beach provides access to the water," she writes in the petition. "The area around Valentino Pier Park is beloved by film-makers, photographers, and fashion shoots as a backdrop representing Brooklyn's past, and present."

The red exterior of the building is an important part of a the cobblestone blocks where other historic buildings — such as the The German American Warehouse, the Liberty Warehouse and 185 Van Dyke Street — create "a different feel than most other places in New York City," she said.

The petition asks that UPS consider at least keeping the buildings that face the park, and use the rest of the property, which is made up of five street addresses, to build out its site.

"We want them to build what they need to build, but they need to compromise a little bit," Nandan said. "We just want them to preserve the building that edges the park as a nod to history."

UPS still hasn't released details of what it will use the complex for and has not yet filed an application with DOB to build something in place of the Lidgerwood building, but the company has said that it is considering the property as a way to "optimize its ground network across the Northeast."

A UPS spokeswoman reached Friday said that the company is still in the planning process for the site. She did not respond to specific questions about the application to demolish the Lidgerwood building.

“The brownfield remediation process to clean-up the property is one of the initial steps in the feasibility and planning process," she said. "UPS prides itself on being a good neighbor and a good corporate citizen. We look forward to engaging with our neighbors as we go through the brownfield remediation activities and finalize our plans for the site.”