FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John Leyva
​Email: mr.johnleyva@gmail.com
​Phone: 917-557-9559

Date: June 1, 2026

Columbia Street Waterfront Association Praises State Budget Decision to Leave Brooklyn Marine Terminal PILOT Financing Out of the Final Budget

Community group says financing should not move ahead before environmental review, public disclosure, and serious alternatives analysis are complete

Brooklyn, NY — The Columbia Street Waterfront Association (CSWA) today praised the decision not to include proposed Brooklyn Marine Terminal PILOT financing language in the recently adopted New York State budget, calling it the right decision for public accountability, environmental review, and responsible waterfront planning.

The proposed financing mechanism would have advanced a project-specific payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) structure connected to the Brooklyn Marine Terminal (BMT) redevelopment. CSWA said such a mechanism would be premature while the project is still undergoing environmental review and while critical questions remain unanswered about cost, scale, impacts, alternatives, and the future of Brooklyn’s working waterfront.

“This was the right decision,” said Randy Gordon, President, Columbia Street Waterfront Association. “The Brooklyn Marine Terminal is a 122-acre public waterfront asset of citywide and regional importance. A project of this magnitude should not be financially locked in before the public has seen a fully developed plan, before environmental review is complete, and before all serious alternatives have been studied.”

“If PILOTs can be considered later through the proper public, contractual, and fiscal processes, then there was no need to insert special project-specific PILOT language into the state budget before environmental review, public disclosure, and alternatives analysis are complete,” CSWA Vice President John Leyva said. “The issue is not whether the Brooklyn Marine Terminal should receive investment. It should. The issue is whether the State should prematurely create a special financing mechanism for a project whose final form, impacts, costs, and alternatives remain unresolved.”

“We support serious public investment in the Brooklyn Marine Terminal,” Leyva continued. “We support modernizing the port, strengthening maritime infrastructure, creating good union jobs, improving climate resilience, and planning for a waterfront that serves Brooklyn and the entire city. But financing structures should follow environmental review, public disclosure, independent analysis, and a clear explanation of costs and benefits. They should not precede them.”

Assemblymembers Jo Anne Simon and Marcela Mitaynes have noted that the absence of PILOT language in this year’s state budget does not, by itself, prevent future use of PILOTs to fund portions of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal Vision Plan or any later modification at the site. The Assemblymembers have also noted that PILOTS have historically been established by contract rather than statute. They cite the example of PILOTs instituted by contract to help fund the upkeep of Brooklyn Bridge Park, because it is a public use. CSWA said these points only reinforce why the budget decision was appropriate.

The Association also noted that premature financing could undermine public confidence in the environmental review process by suggesting that the housing-heavy mixed-use framework is already the assumed outcome, rather than one scenario that must be tested against other alternatives. Those alternatives should include an all-port or port-focused alternative capable of strengthening freight movement by water, supporting maritime industry, reducing truck impacts, and preserving Brooklyn’s last working waterfront for future generations.

“Public caution is not obstruction," Gordon said. “Due diligence is not delay for delay’s sake. Asking the state not to prejudge a still-changing public project is exactly the kind of oversight New Yorkers should expect when billions of dollars, public land, and the future of Brooklyn’s last working waterfront are at stake.”

The Columbia Street Waterfront Association thanks Assemblymembers Jo Anne Simon and Marcela Mitaynes, who recognized that the Brooklyn Marine Terminal requires more transparency, more analysis, and more public accountability before any special financing structure is approved. CSWA also expresses appreciation for all elected officials who have stood with impacted communities and insisted that the process remain open, lawful, and responsive to the public.

At the same time, CSWA is disappointed that our State Senator Andrew Gounardes has continued to defend advancing this project and its financing despite his own public acknowledgment that the process has been “long, bumpy and far from perfect,” that “some key questions remain,” and that “many important details remain unclear.”

Those acknowledgments should have led to a more cautious approach, not an effort to move forward with a project-specific financing mechanism before environmental review, alternatives analysis, and public disclosure are complete. If crucial details remain unclear, then the State should not be asked to create financing tools that make one outcome appear inevitable.

Senator Gounardes has also said that the Task Force vote was not the end of the process. The community took him at his word when he said, “This is just the first step of an ongoing process. Now, the proposal moves into environmental review, when important details will be fleshed out and when neighbors will have more opportunities to make their voices heard. This vote represents the start of an ongoing community conversation, not the end.”

CSWA agrees. That is precisely why the PILOT financing language did not belong in the state budget. If this process is still ongoing, then financing should not be used to prejudge its result.

“We urge Senator Gounardes and all project sponsors to treat this budget outcome as a clear signal,” Leyva said. “The public is not asking for paralysis. We are asking for transparency, lawful process, independent analysis, and a genuine review of alternatives before the state creates financing tools that could lock in one preferred outcome.”

Before any future financing proposal is advanced, CSWA urges the State, the City, and NYCEDC to meaningfully engage with the community and publicly disclose the project’s financial assumptions, cost estimates, revenue projections, alternatives analysis, and environmental impacts.

“The state budget was not the proper place to quietly advance a financing mechanism for a project whose final form has not yet been determined,” Gordon said. “The Brooklyn Marine Terminal is too important to be decided through furtive budget language before the planning process has run its course.”

About the Columbia Street Waterfront Association

The Columbia Street Waterfront Association (CSWA) advocates for the residents, small businesses, public spaces, and waterfront communities of the Columbia Street Waterfront District and surrounding neighborhoods. The association supports transparent planning, meaningful public participation, climate resilience, neighborhood stability, and a working waterfront that serves the public good.