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Making the announcement were State Senate Majority Conference leader John L. Sampson and state Senators Velmanette Montgomery and Daniel Squadron. Among the other politicos speaking were borough president Marty Markowitz and City Councilwoman Letitia James.

James, who was fresh off her primary campaign victory the night before, noted the crowd of workers behind her, saying, "not all of us are doctors, lawyers or work on Wall Street." She said of salaries at the Navy Yard, "they sustain families."

The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. will use $10.5 million of the money toward the $30-million, 220,000-square-foot Green Manufacturing Center, which will be adapted from three connected structures that once served as machine shops. According to a release, the building will be LEED-certified and will include the state's largest solar panel installations.

BNYDC will use the other $4.5 million of the state funds to complete the base building at the $19.5-million BNYDC92, or building 92, which will serve as a community facility and exhibition center. Building 92 is the historic 150-year-old structure that once served as the United States Marine Corps Commandant's residence. The building was designed by the US Capitol's fourth architect, Thomas Ustick Walter.

"These projects will create not only 300 permanent green collar jobs, but also provide inspiration to young people to pursue careers in sustainable industries or to start their own green business," says Andrew Kimball, president and CEO of BNYDC, which manages the 300-acre facility.

Work is set to start in mid-October on the 27,000-square-foot facility, with completion scheduled for mid-2011. It will be built to LLED-Platinum standards, the release states. Meanwhile, work on the green manufacturing center is scheduled to begin in spring 2010 and is expected to take around 18 months.

The new funding will help continue the Navy Yard's expansion, which the release says is the largest growth spurt at an industrial site since World War II, when the site employed around 70,000 New Yorkers and built war machines like the battleships Iowa and Missouri.

Saying the Navy Yard is an engine for local job creation, Alan Fishman, chairman of the BNYDC, added at Wednesday's event that part of the project's goal has always been to "expose the rich and critical history of New York City."

Founded in 1801, the site is replete with relics of a time now only imagined or witnessed through historic photos, when the shores of the East River roared with the sounds of heavy machines and the sky was filled with smoke. Concrete walls, topped with barbed wire, built to prevent espionage still surround the site, which was decommissioned by the Navy and sold to the city in 1966.

State Sen. Carl Krueger told press conference attendees that in '66, there was a sense of cynicism and despair surrounding the site. However, on Wednesday he struck a note of optimism, saying the Navy Yard expansion was "a small step towards a much larger agenda" and had the potential to be a job incubator for the area.

"Gone are the smokestacks of the past," Kimball tells GlobeSt.com. "As consumers demand more green products, we are going to create a space for companies to make them." Since the park's refurbished buildings are essentially full at this point, Kimball is confident demand will be high for the new space.