SI's Homeport Sees New Beginning

NEW YORK CITY-City officials and Ironstate Development Corp. president David Barry hoisted ceremonial shovels Thursday afternoon for the long-awaited launch of redevelopment of the former US Naval Homeport on Staten Island's North Shore. Selected in 2009 to lead the project, Hoboken, NJ-based Ironstate is putting $150 million into the mixed-use New Stapleton Waterfront Development Plan; the city has committed another $32 million for infrastructure improvements and the construction of a waterfront esplanade.

Since Ironstate was chosen in a competitive bidding process, Superstorm Sandy has wreaked havoc in the region, and that led to modifications of the project.  All buildings planned for the 35-acre site have been elevated by two feet and a new set of tidal wetlands will be built to mitigate possible storm surges and flooding, the Bloomberg administration said Thursday.

However, the project's scope remains the same as before: Ironstate will build 900 apartments, 20% of which will be affordable housing, 30,000 square feet of ground floor retail and 600 parking spaces. The project will also feature open space along with access to mass transit, including the St. George Ferry Terminal.

The first stage of New Stapleton development is expected to be completed in 2015. It will consist of approximately 340,000 square feet of residential housing, 25,000 square feet of retail and accessory parking. The second stage will encompass 260,000 square feet of residential housing, 5,000 square feet of retail space and more parking.

Thursday's groundbreaking marked the start of the first of several redevelopment projects the Bloomberg administration has planned for the North Shore.  In May, GlobeSt.com reported that the city had launched the six-month public review process for a project intended to transform the St. George neighborhood. It will include the world's largest Ferris wheel as well as the first outlet mall in the city. Also in St. George, a $140-million MXD on the site of the former US Lighthouse Depot is in the works.

“We're breathing new life into a once blighted and abandoned spot in our city,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at Thursday's ceremony. The Homeport has been closed since 1994, decommissioned just four years after it opened. All told, $1 billion in private money will be pumped into the North Shore over the next few years, Bloomberg said.