Marine transfer station primed for makeover

Aquafarming and solar paneling may be on its way to Harlem.

Community Board 9 continues to pursue a “green” redevelopment of the former marine transfer station on 135th Street, which has been vacant for years. It passed a resolution on Sept. 17 setting seven priorities for redevelopment, and a community forum will be held soon.

The priorities include a “detached vertical green wall” at the building entrance, a solar-paneled roof, interior space for a restaurant supporting aquafarming and hydroponics programs, and space for a green wall manufacturer, local trade shows and exhibitions, an ecology center, and a recreational sailing and kayaking program. Aquafarming is a process by which fish and shellfish are raised under controlled conditions, and hydroponics is a process of growing plants by substituting mineral solutions for soil.

“It’s just good for the community,” said CB9 Waterfront and Economic Development Committee member Mark Irgang, whose wife is an architect and designed the original plans for the station, which were passed by the committee in February but were tabled by the full board. “It’ll create green jobs, you’ll have an educational institution [Columbia Secondary School] with a scientific bent that could participate there, and it just looks like a win-win situation.”

The next stage will be a community forum coordinated by WE ACT for Environmental Justice, which CB9 Waterfront and Economic Development Committee co-chair Savona Bailey-McClain said would likely take place in early November.

“What the city has indicated it would like to see is some sort of informed community consensus around the marine transfer station,” CB9 chair Pat Jones said. “The next logical step is a broad community meeting to flesh out what our options are, what other cities have done, etc.”

The meetings, she added, will “help the broader community be involved with what the potential is for that space.”

Cecil Corbin-Mark of WE ACT did not respond to a request for comment, nor did a representative of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, which will have to approve the final plan.

The station is on city-owned property, and CB9 calls in the resolution for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s support.

“I’m sure it’ll bring people up to Harlem to see it, and once the people go up there, they’ll look at the other businesses,” Irgang said of the proposed development. “Maybe someday—I’m just hoping out loud—trips that go around Manhattan will be able to make a stop there, and that would be amazing. It would just fill the whole area with people.”

Though the board voted favorably and a feasibility study from the city will be conducted after the public hearing, there is still debate over whether the priorities set forth in the CB9 resolution are appropriate.

“I support the resolution, but when we talk about the marine transfer station, it could obviously be used for other things outside of hydroponics,” Waterfront and Economic Development Committee member Brandon Brice said. “I’m in support of green jobs, but then what? Are people going to be prepared to do these green jobs?”

Brice suggested maintaining the aspects of the plan concerning sustainable architecture and construction, but using the interior space for a program that would train locals in technical skills like engineering and plumbing.

“This opens up an opportunity for many of the youth to get skills and training in a particular industry. Things like that will help push West Harlem’s and overall Harlem’s economy, and that’s what we’ve got to look at,” he said. “We also have the waterfront to utilize. There are so many innovations that you could bring toward that area and that amount of space.”

“The priorities that are listed are twofold,” Jones explained. “One is potential uses, for example green wall manufacturing, and one is more of a construct of the space—not a what but a how, a green roof or solar panels. That’s relevant whether there’s a restaurant in there, whether there’s light manufacturing, or whether there’s a museum.”

And Irgang emphasized that this resolution was long in the making and thoroughly thought out.

“It’s not something that was just written in a second,” he said.