Metro

US ‘sells out’ Brooklyn

WASHINGTON — A hulking old Naval warehouse on the Brooklyn waterfront will be sold through an online auction, even though the city is on the cusp of a deal that would turn it into a major economic-development project.

The sale is part of a plan by the Obama administration to unload excess federal property.

But for years, the city’s Economic Development Corp. has been in talks with the feds to buy the vacant, ex-Navy building dating from 1916, called Federal Building No. 2.

The plan is to convert its 1.1 million square feet to mixed-use manufacturing, wholesale and retail use to bring jobs and development to Sunset Park and the waterfront.

At the White House this week, budget official Jeff Zients singled out the facility as part of a plan to unload 14,000 unneeded properties and raise $15 billion.

“Far from lying fallow without prospects, Federal Building No. 2 is at the threshold of imminent and groundbreaking industrial development,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhat- tan/Brooklyn), who has worked for years on the project with Rep. Nydia Velazquez.

Selling the building online “would be a great tragedy,” said Joan Bartolomeo, of the Brooklyn Economic Development Corp., calling the building “irreplaceable” because of its size and location.

Without city involvement, the buyer could simply turn the building into a warehouse, with little community benefit.

geoff.earle@nypost.com