NEWS |
021-97: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE , March 5, 1997
The bistate agency sold the terminal to the Gowanus Industrial Park, Inc., an industrial development company, for $3.5 million.
"The Port Authority is focusing on its core mission of transportation, and this is the latest in a series of steps we have taken to divest ourselves of non core businesses," Port Authority Chairman Lewis M. Eisenberg said.
"This sale is a perfect example of Governor Pataki's pledge to return the Port Authority to its core mission -- transportation," said Charles A. Gargano, Port Authority Vice Chairman. "Everyone wins under this agreement: Brooklyn gets jobs, because the grain terminal returns to productive use after sitting idle since 1965. New York City gets tax revenues. And the Port Authority frees itself from another unproductive asset."
Over the past two years, the Port Authority has sold a number of other non transportation businesses, including the Vista Hotel at the World Trade Center and portions of the Yonkers and Elizabeth industrial parks.
The Columbia Street Grain Terminal totals 43.4 acres -- 12.7 acres on land and 30.7 acres under water. Situated between Columbia Street and the Henry Street Basin along the Gowanus Canal, it includes a grain elevator and piers.
Built by the State of New York and opened in 1922, the marine terminal was transferred to the Port Authority by legislation in May 1944. It ceased operation in 1965, and was declared surplus property by the Port Authority Board of Commissioners in November of last year.
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