It’s been said that good things take time, and nowhere is that adage truer than in Greenpoint. From Bushwick Inlet Park to the McCarren Park pool renovation, our projects for the public good tend to languish in permitting processes, environmental remediation, and even good old-fashioned neighborly disagreements.
The North Brooklyn Community Boathouse building is another such project, first promised to the community in 2011. Though building construction finally topped out in August 2023, there have been seemingly no major updates as to when the facility might finally open. The five-story building will serve as the permanent home of the local non-profit North Brooklyn Community Boathouse, allowing the community to benefit from public educational events.
Local production company Broadway Stages owns the land at 51 Ash Street and is responsible for developing the project, having previously allotting the Boathouse the use of the site for its headquarters. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office recently indicted Broadway Stages’ owners, siblings Gina and Tony Argento, for allegedly bribing a top aide of Mayor Eric Adams in order to thwart the McGuinness Boulevard redesign.
It’s unclear if the indictments throw a wrench into the plans, but the Boathouse has been a neighborhood headache for well over a decade. The Boathouse (then known as the North Brooklyn Boat Club) received a $3 million grant in 2011 from the City Parks Foundation in order to build the new facility. In 2014, neighbors began voicing concerns about how the money was being spent (if you want to recall some Brooklyn blogosphere beef, our archives are a fount of petty squabbles). Permits initially listed the project as a “transient hotel,” sparking fears over the true nature of the building. Curbed reported in 2014 that “it seems like it will be lodging for production staff working with Broadway Stages (not a traditional hotel).”
A Broadway Stages representative confirmed to us in 2023 that there were no current plans for a hotel.
Building construction has been in the works since 2015, when the city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) issued the first permit connected to the project. Construction finally ramped up in January 2023 and topped out later in August (why it took so long for construction to start is unclear). We reported in August 2023 that the Boathouse was expected to be completed by spring or summer 2024 (based on reporting from New York YIMBY), a deadline long since passed.
We again reached out to Broadway Stages to get the latest updates on the project and have not received a response. North Brooklyn Community Boathouse also did not respond to our request for comment.
As of press time, the building’s exterior looks fairly complete. DOB permits indicate that the project still needs to complete some interior work for plumbing, HVAC equipment, and electrical wiring.