In a move that will both boost food and beverage manufacturing and create greater public access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Mayor Bill de Blasio and The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation announced that Brooklyn Brewery is expanding its operations and building a new brewery, headquarters and roof-top restaurant and beer garden at the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Building 77.
The de Blasio administration has invested over $100 million to transform Building 77 into a one million square foot manufacturing center.
Brooklyn Brewery will employ 124 people at the Yard, with the long-term goal of creating an additional 100 jobs. “Today we are proud to announce that Brooklyn Brewery will be making its new home in Building 77 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard – a world-class industrial and innovation hub that continues to attract New Yorkers’ hometown favorites,” said Mayor de Blasio.
“Brooklyn Brewery is a welcome addition to the Yard’s growing roster, bringing along with it more than a hundred quality jobs and some of the best brews our city has to offer. I hope New Yorkers will join me in raising a glass to toast Brooklyn Brewery and the continued revitalization of Brooklyn’s waterfront at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.”
Brooklyn Brewery, which opened its first brewery in Williamsburg 20 years ago, will lease a total of 75,000 s/f in the building, which is now undergoing a $185 million redevelopment. It joins anchor tenant Russ & Daughters in the ground floor food manufacturing hub, and other food manufacturers including chocolate maker, Mast Brothers and coffee maker, Brooklyn Roasting Company – both of which have recently announced plans to open manufacturing facilities at the Brooklyn Navy Yard – in the Yard more broadly. The Brewery will produce 50,000 barrels annually at the Yard.
Brooklyn Navy Yard President and CEO David Ehrenberg said, “The Brewery will play a pivotal role in creating a vibrant publicly accessible food manufacturing and retail hub on the ground floor, while the rooftop beer garden and restaurant will be a welcome place for tenants and community members to relax, collaborate, and meet. The Brewery will also help attract and support the next generation of food and beverage entrepreneurs to the Yard.”
“We are very excited to be in the Navy Yard,” said Brooklyn Brewery Founder Steve Hindy. “The Navy Yard gives us a future in Brooklyn. It’s incredible to see what’s grown around us here in Brooklyn and our long-term lease at the Yard will ensure a presence in Brooklyn alongside many similar Brooklyn entrepreneurial success stories. We are very proud to be a part of this creative community that has become an engine of job creation in Brooklyn.”
The $185 million renovation of Building 77 will convert one million square feet of underutilized storage space into a state of the art manufacturing, tech and design hub. When completed in early 2017, the one million square foot building will add 3,000 jobs.
In addition to the Navy Yard site, which will become operational in early 2018, Brooklyn Brewery CEO Eric Ottaway said the company is hoping to build a large brewery in Staten Island to handle production that is now done in Utica, NY.
The brewery will maintain its brewing operations in its original site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, until its leases expire in 2025. Ottaway said the company is hoping to extend that lease beyond 2025 and maintain a presence in Williamsburg.
To encourage Brooklyn Brewery to expand its New York City operations, the New York City Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) has designated the multi-borough expansion as a priority project for two straight years.
The Brooklyn Brewery’s Navy Yard and Staten Island breweries are being designed by Davis Brody Bond, a leading design firm whose significant achievements include the National September 11 Memorial Museum and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture
