After two decades of delays, construction is finally starting on Box Street Park, city officials announced Thursday.
The 2.5 acre waterfront park was promised to replace an MTA parking lot as part of the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning. As the neighborhood changed around it, the project was plagued by administrative setbacks, and the land is still fenced-off and undeveloped.
“Today, we are finally making good on a promise that Greenpoint families have been waiting decades to see fulfilled: turning a parking lot into a park,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “Box Street Park will give New Yorkers a place to walk, play, rest and gather along the water, with lush gardens, open green space and pathways connecting neighbors to the waterfront. And it is proof of what becomes possible when communities organize and government delivers.”
The lot currently houses the MTA’s Emergency Response Unit. Photo courtesy of Google Maps/Gerardo Romo, NYC Council Media Unit
Located at 65 Commercial St., the park is set to include an elevated waterfront esplanade, lawns and gardens, a basketball court, picnic area, designated dog run, and public bathroom. The city plans to landscape with native plants like Eastern redbud trees, little bluestem grass, goldenrod and flowers to increase resiliency and provide habitat for native wildlife.
The $40 million project, a collaboration between the city’s parks department and Economic Development Corporation, is expected to wrap up in the summer of 2028.
“Box Street Park has been part of the vision for a continuous Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront for more than twenty years, and today’s groundbreaking is an important step toward realizing that promise,” said Katie Denny Horowitz, executive director of the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance. “ … With an accessible shoreline, new green space and a much-needed dog run, Box Street Park marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for northern Greenpoint, with major investments along Commercial Street still to come.”
The MTA had long used the lot to store Access-A-Ride vehicles and cars for its Emergency Response Unit.
A plan to move the Access-A-Ride buses to the Bronx was approved in 2015, ten years after the rezoning was approved, but the agency continued to refuse to move the ERU space, to the frustration of local elected officials and advocates.
The city initially planned to break ground on just 85% of the site this summer, working around the ERU space.
The park will now include the ERU space at the top right corner.Rendering courtesy of NYC Mayor’s Office
Last year, it was discovered that the lot — which sits on the edge of the Newtown Creek — would require more remediation than was originally planned. The additional work would cost about $2 million more than had been budgeted for the project, Council Member Lincoln Restler said at a City Council hearing at the time.
Both issues were solved earlier this year. As part of the Monitor Point rezoning, which was approved in July after months of negotiations, developers agreed to relocate two MTA facilities, including the ERU lot at the Box Street Park site. The MTA officially authorized the redevelopment on Sept. 30.
Last month, the Mayor’s Office invested an additional $2 million in the project as part of the newly-released September Capital Commitment Plan.
“After years of relentless advocacy, I’m thrilled that we’re finally breaking ground on this beautiful new multipurpose public park complete with lush greenery, waterfront seating, dog runs, a basketball court and a public bathroom,” Restler said. “I’m thankful to all the neighbors who refused to give up on our promised park and to Mayor Mamdani for helping us get this done and showing that City Hall has Greenpoint’s back.”
Box Street Park isn’t the only long-overdue promise of the 2005 rezoning. A mile away, Bushwick Inlet Park is also unfinished, with two large undeveloped parcels separating the completed sections of parkland. The city purchased the last parcel of land needed for the park in 2016, more than a decade after the park was initially promised, and while the third section of the park opened to the public earlier this year, two massive parcels remain untouched. The land needs signficant remediation, and construction has been delayed as the fossil fuel companies responsible for bankrolling the cleanup argue amongst themselves.
Mamdani has said he is committed to finishing Bushwick Inlet Park too, Restler said earlier this year.