3,000 jobs could come to Brooklyn Navy Yards

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday an empty industrial building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard will be rehabbed, and is expected to eventually create 3,000 new jobs.

The $140 million project will upgrade vacant Building 44, adding new windows and making better use of the space’s 1-million square feet. Once the building is completed, and jobs filled, Navy Yard employment is expected to increase by 40 percent.

“Brooklyn Navy Yard, if you were to come here decades ago, was the largest – or one of the largest Navy yards in the country. It was, in its heyday, a place that employed tens of thousands of people,” de Blasio said. “The world changed … And what the city of New York did, to its great credit, is saw a new use for the Navy Yard that was very dynamic, that moved with the times – and the successive leaders of the Navy Yard have built upon that over and over again.”

De Blasio said the Navy Yard is a “vibrant hub” for manufacturing and technology. There are currently 330 companies at the Navy Yard, and 7,000 employees, said Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation President David Ehrenberg.

Of the $140 million set aside to finance the project, $73.1 million will come from Mayoral City Capital, and $3.7 million from City Council and Brooklyn Borough President. The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, a nonprofit, is also contributing funds.

The Navy Yard also has an employment center that started job training and placement services three years ago. Since then, 600 New Yorkers have become employed at the Navy Yard — 70 percent are Brooklyn residents, 21 percent live in public housing, 11 percent have been incarcerated and 10 percent are veterans.