Plans Announced for New 200K-sf Climate Innovation Hub in Sunset Park
A recent press release by Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Economic Development Corp. (NYCEDC) announced plans for the creation of a new 200,000-square-foot climate innovation hub. The new hub dubbed “BATWorks” will be located within the Brooklyn Army Terminal (BAT) in Sunset Park; and be supported by a $100 million investment from the NYCEDC. Designed to foster clean-tech innovation, the hub will “help create over 600 jobs, serve 150 startups over the next decade, and generate $2.6 billion in economic impact for the city.” BATWorks will be designed and operated by a consortium led by the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC). Programming at BAT will be delivered by CUNY and New York University; while the coworking space, incubation, lab prototyping and trial assembly facilities will be co-envisioned and designed by architectural design firm Perkins & Will. The new BAT climate hub will serve as a crucial part of the effort by the Harbor Climate Collaborative— a joint initiative between NYCEDC, the Trust for Governors Island, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp., “to link together tech piloting, tenanting, and programming opportunities across all three organizations and promote climate innovation.” In addition to providing start-ups with space for product research and development, workforce training and job placement programming to New Yorkers, particularly those living in Sunset Park and the surrounding communities, will also be offered at the facility; and to further facilitate the connecting by local residents to “good-paying jobs in innovative industries,” in conjunction with the announcement of the BATWorks hub, the NYCEDC also awarded $1.4 million to the South Brooklyn Industrial Development Corp. to lead an “Economic Mobility Network” across Sunset Park.