Red Hook Still Skeptical Of UPS Plan For Historic Waterfront Site

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN — Local activists may have succeeded in convincing UPS to save a historic red wall on what will become their new facility on Red Hook's waterfront, but residents are still skeptical about the company's plans for the $303 million site.

About a half dozen top executives from the United Parcel Service visited Brooklyn on Tuesday to unveil their new design for the Lidgerwood Building that promises to preserve its iconic south wall, which thousands of residents had signed a petition trying to save.

Their design comes after weeks of gathering ideas for the site after local outcry prompted them to pause demolition that had started on the building in May. The 19th-century Lidgerwood Building is one of several on a large property the company acquired last year.

But even with the executive's promise to keep the wall, many of the hundred residents at Tuesday's meeting were still unsure about trusting the parcel company's word, let alone their plans for the rest of the 350,000-square-foot property.

"There is no commitment that this is anything," resident Jennifer Nelson told the executives. "There's nothing concrete about how any of this will happen."

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Nelson and others worried whether the design shown Tuesday would become a reality given that it still needed approval from UPS' board.

The preliminary design proposes keeping the center "gable wall" of the south facade and rebuilding the rest of the wall with new bricks. The brick wall, which faces Valentino Park, will be topped with a reflective top half of the building, which altogether will reach about 60 feet.

Tearing down most of the existing wall is necessary given asbestos, water damage and other structural issues with the building, said Laura Lane, UPS' president of global public affairs.

"It will be rebuilt with brick that is free of contaminants, free of asbestos, free of water damage and has structural integrity," she said. "We need to make sure the structure is solid and sound."

(Provided by UPS)

Lane told the crowd that the plan was still in its preliminary stage because the company hadn't yet started its design process when residents started calling for the wall to be saved. The process was then accelerated and the new design emerged from ideas residents sent to an email UPS set up to gather feedback, she said.

The company has not come up with designs for the rest of the building or the rest of the complex, which includes five addresses on Sullivan Street, Coffey Street and Ferris Street, she said.

But this worried some residents who questioned why UPS started demolition, or even bought the properties, without an exact plan for the site.

Many worried specifically about truck traffic, given that executives said they just started a traffic study of the area and encouraged residents to send in their thoughts about truck routes.

"I'm scared s---tless because you're looking at us for the idea of the ingress and egress of the warehouse," one resident, who later walked out of the meeting, told Lane. "You bought a piece of land to distribute millions of packages and you don't know how you're going to bring it in and how you're going to get it out."

Axel Carrión, director of UPS' state public affairs, told the crowd that the company chose the site based on its access to highways and its square footage, which is difficult to find in New York City. The access to the waterfront was a bonus, he said, given that UPS is hoping to include water deliveries to the facility to cut down on its carbon footprint.

Residents also asked questions about the company's plan for hiring employees both during construction and to work at the facility and the environmental impact of the new facility.

Doug Holland, east region plant engineering coordinator, said the construction team is already looking into raising the Lidgerwood Building and other parts of the property for flood resiliency. Lane told the crowd that, like at its other sites, UPS is exploring bringing in emissions-free trucks to the facility.

She added that the company has a commitment to hiring locally and will provide training, driving lessons and opportunities for advancement to all its new employees.

"We really did try to honor the spirit of Red Hook, but we're bringing new opportunity at the same time," she said.

Council Member Carlos Menchaca and U.S. Rep. Nydia Valazquez, who organized the meeting, said Tuesday that they plan to follow-up on many of the questions brought up during the meeting. Residents should send in their remaining ideas or issues to the UPS email set up for the project, Lane said.

Local group Resilient Red Hook has also created a Google spreadsheet to collect ideas and there is also a Dropbox PortSide New York is using to collect new and old photos of the Lidgerwood building.