Four years after the Bloomberg administration allowed IKEA to turn a historic dry dock in Red Hook into a parking lot, a new study has found that the city desperately needs at least seven new docks just like the one it gave up.
The city-commissioned study, conducted by SUNY Maritime College, urges the construction of seven new dry docks by 2016. Three must be “graving docks,” such as the paved-over one in Red Hook, which can accommodate larger ships.
Industry experts say it would cost about $1 billion just to replace the 730-foot-long former graving dock that was converted into part of a parking lot for the IKEA store, which opened Wednesday.
“I knew it was big mistake for the city to allow IKEA to take the graving dock, but I didn’t realize just how big of a mistake it was until I saw the report,” said Lisa Kersavage, a policy director for the Municipal Art Society, which had fought to save the dock.
City officials said they had to rely on outdated data from the previous maritime study, done in 1991, when approving the IKEA project in 2004, adding that the new report was long overdue.
“We look forward to working with the maritime industry and its supporters to address future capacity constraints,” said Andrew Genn, a vice president for the city’s Economic Development Corp.
John McGettrick, co-chair of the Red Hook Civic Alliance, called the deal to allow IKEA to build a parking lot where the dry dock sat a “billion-dollar boondoggle.”
He and the Municipal Art Society want the city to try taking back the graving dock from IKEA, saying it would be less costly and time-consuming than finding another location.
The Port of New York now has 18 dry docks, four of which are the larger graving docks. The study estimates the port will lose $50 million to $150 million in revenues to competitive ports over the next five years because it does not have enough docks to meet repair and maintenance needs.
“I believe over time that most will agree it was a costly mistake to destroy a working shipyard that the city now needs to create a waterfront IKEA next to a park,” McGettrick said.