Green Industrial Project Opens Its Doors

BROOKLYN, NY-Another in a series of green real estate firsts within city limits was unveiled Thursday as officials from the Bloomberg administration and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. opened the Perry Avenue Building, reportedly the nation’s first multi-story green industrial facility. The $25-million property, which sports the first permanent building-mounted wind turbines in the city, will soon be joined at the Navy Yard by a 60,000-square-foot green manufacturing plant, also announced Thursday. It joins three other eco-friendly projects under way at the Navy Yard, all part of a $250-million capital funding program through the city.

In prepared remarks, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the expansion at the Navy Yard furthers both the city’s Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan, which he announced earlier this month, and PlaNYC, a program to green the city that began in April 2007. “Part of our Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan is to invest in the creation of green jobs,” Bloomberg said. “Of the 1,700 new permanent jobs we’re creating at the Navy Yard, 40% will be in green manufacturing. The sustainable developments at the Navy Yard show that PlaNYC’s goals of green buildings and renewable energy make sense economically as well as environmentally.”

The three-story, 89,000-square-foot Perry Building will feature both rooftop solar panels and wind turbines. It also includes reflective roofing and pavement to reduce surface temperatures, the use of recycled rain water in toilets, recycled building materials, high-efficiency lighting fixtures, natural ventilation systems and special accommodation for bicyclists and low-emission vehicles.