NY 1

For decades the Brooklyn Navy Yard sat dormant. Once a mecca for wartime ship building, it’s on a voyage to become a billion dollar technology hub.

“We kind of looked out to the next 20 to 30 years and said what’s next for the navy yard? And tried to charter a really ambitious plan for ourselves,” said Brooklyn Navy Yard President/CEO David Ehrenberg.

Ehrenberg heads the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation – a not for profit organization overseeing the development of the yard which is now owned by the city.

It’s undergoing its largest expansion since World War II. Last month, the development corporation unveiled a $2.5 billion plan to create 10,000 new jobs and add an additional five million square feet of manufacturing space.

“Cities need middle class jobs and they need them desperately and we think we provide a huge need in providing a home for those kinds of companies,” Ehrenberg said.

Building 77 alone will house 3,000 employees.

A renovation costing $180 million is complete, allowing the one million square foot building to become – it is hoped – the gateway to the yard.

“It’s creating a unique opportunity within the yard to have the public come in, to have a space for businesses for mix and mingle and for that unique energy of New York,” said Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation Executive Vice President Claire Newman.