Biden OKs Migrant Shelter At Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field: NY Gov

NEW YORK CITY — A World War II navel air station on Brooklyn's coastline could house more than 2,000 asylum seekers after President Joe Biden struck a tentative deal with Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The Floyd Bennett Field deal announced Monday comes after months of negotiation with Biden administration, seemingly hesitant to lease the federally-owned 1,600-acre site on Jamaica Bay.

"Once the final agreement is signed," stated Hochul, "we will work with Mayor Adams and his team to set up a Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Response Center at Floyd Bennett Field."

Mayor Eric Adams said he was grateful for the deal, albeit with a significant caveat about federal help in general.

"But let’s be clear: because we haven’t seen meaningful policy changes that would alter the course of this crisis, we’ve been forced to play an unsustainable game of 'whack-a-mole', opening new site after new site as asylum seekers continue to arrive by the thousands," he said in a statement.

Hochul first suggested the site, currently owned by the Department of Interior and managed by the National Parks Service, in a letter to the Biden Administration dated May 12.

According to Gothamist, the Interior department raised legality concerns about housing people on parkland.

Hochul, and Adams have both faced criticism over their handling of a crisis that has witnessed more than 100,000 asylum seekers enter New York City in the past year.

Over the weekend, the city opened its latest mega-shelter for migrants — a 3,000-person facility on Randall's Island's youth soccer fields that will cost $20 million per month, the New York Post reported.

Floyd Bennett Field is the site of New York City's first airport where aviators such as Amelia Earhart and Hollywood producer Howard Hughes began their flights.

During World War 11, Floyd Bennett Field became the busiest navel air station in the U.S. The site also housed a glue factory and a garbage dump.

Beachgoers will recognize it as their last sight of Brooklyn before crossing Marine Parkway Bridge to Jacob Riis Park.

Before the pandemic, kids from Bed-Stuy, with help from then-Borough President Adams — went to the field to learn to fly.