Box Street Park Breaks Ground At 65 Commercial Street In Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Construction is underway on Box Street Park, a 2.5-acre public park at 65 Commercial Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Designed by Stantec and developed by the New York City Economic Development Corporation in partnership with the Department of Parks and Recreation, the $40 million capital project will convert a former Metropolitan Transportation Authority parking facility along Newtown Creek into waterfront open space with an elevated esplanade, ADA-accessible pathways, terraced granite seating, gardens, a lawn, basketball court, picnic area, separate dog runs for small and large dogs, and a public restroom.

Renderings show the park organized along an elevated esplanade on the Newtown Creek bulkhead, with terraced granite seating facing the water and pathways looping through gardens and a central lawn. The basketball court, picnic area, and dog runs will sit farther inland, and a comfort station will stand near the entrance. Plantings will use native species: blackgum and Eastern redbud trees, purple love grass and little bluestem grasses, and Virginia rose and seaside goldenrod.

Rendering courtesy of New York City.

The park was first proposed as part of the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront rezoning, which has since delivered tens of thousands of new homes to North Brooklyn. The delivery of recreation space lagged behind, leaving Greenpoint with some of the least park space per resident in the city. The lot spent the years since as an MTA facility storing Access-A-Ride vehicles and emergency equipment.

A 2018 design, then budgeted at $21.7 million, was sent back for revisions after Community Board 1 objected to a railed sea wall that blocked direct access to the water, and subsequent testing found the shoreline would require more environmental remediation than anticipated. Once the Emergency Response Unit departs, the park will expand by an additional 0.5 acres, or roughly 25,000 square feet, closing a gap between the waterfront esplanades to the east and west.

The project is being fully funded with $34.5 million from the Office of the Mayor, including a $2 million allocation in the September Capital Commitment Plan, along with $500,000 from the City Council and approximately $5 million from local developers through air rights sales and private funds.

Subscribe to YIMBY’s daily e-mail



Follow YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates
Like YIMBY on Facebook
Follow YIMBY’s Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews