Is Red Hook the next “it” neighborhood … again? Redhook Green, the city’s first net zero-energy building (meaning a structure that produces as much energy as it consumes) is bringing a fresh image to the neighborhood as the perfect place for live/work green living, where residential and workspace coexist. For years, Red Hook was ripe for gentrification with all of the right ingredients: cheap housing and vacant warehouses attracting artists to move in, lots of waterfront real estate, and not to mention MTV’s “Real World Brooklyn” production on Pier 41, and the opening of Ikea. In 2006, Time Out New York even featured the neighborhood on the front cover proclaiming, “Red Hook Has Arrived.” But slowed by the economy and lack of public transportation, Red Hook never took off as expected. Jay Amato, a technology and media entrepreneur, and the developer of Redhook Green, thinks his model “can drive new momentum for builders,” adding, “in NYC there is no use of solar in new construction.”
Redhook Green will be a 4,000-square-foot facility that will house a studio/workshop, offices to incubate Amato’s businesses, outdoor green space, and an apartment. Garrison Architects is designing the structure to look like stacked shipping containers, which are found along the bordering waterfront. Ground is set to break in February with completion planned for this summer.
