The United Parcel Service (UPS), which opened a 1.2-million-square-foot facility in suburban Atlanta last year, is preparing a similar regional hub in Red Hook to serve the Northeast.
In a press release announcing the new facility, UPS explained: “The new Atlanta sortation and delivery center is part of an expanded network of regional hubs designed to improve efficiency, service levels and reliability. The Atlanta hub will process approximately 100,000 parcels per hour via a highly orchestrated series of conveyors, chutes, belts and ramps, into waiting trailers for transfer to another UPS location, or into package delivery vehicles bound for area businesses and residents.”
The Atlanta facility consists of large central buildings which include a giant system of conveyors that move the boxes from entry to delivery trucks, and a large room with lots of computer screens that manage the largely robotic sorting system.
As package delivery increases exponentially each year, these facilities are springing up all over, with ever advancing technologies replacing manual sorting of boxes.
Similar facilities are opening in: Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas; Phoenix, Ariz.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Indianapolis, Indiana, according to the UPS release.
The land purchased by UPS consists of 19th- and 20th-century era industrial buildings on the west side of Red Hook. These include the building constructed in the 1950s to house the Daily News printing operations, and later a bottling facility operated until recently by Snapple. Another piece of the property, which totals 12 acres, was a large parking lot next to the Cruise Terminal used to park Haddad film rental trucks.
UPS finally introduced itself to its new Red Hook neighbors at a town hall-type meeting hosted by Jim Tampakas at his new catering place at 120 Hamilton Avenue. The meeting was led by both Councilman Carlos Menchaca and Laura Lane, who spoke for UPS.
The immediate reason for the meeting was the partial demolition of one of the buildings purchased by UPS – one that faced the local Red Hook park and beach, Valentino Pier.
The unannounced demolition awoke some in the sleepy Red Hook community, and sparked an outcry demanding preservation of old waterfront buildings. There are very few landmarked buildings in Red Hook, despite a treasure trove of Brooklyn history that resides there.
About as hundred locals showed up to hear UPS explain that the building in question could not be repurposed by UPS because of supposed asbestos problems and other issues. This was not a factor in the most recent previous plans for the building. This was a project to create a “Red Hook Innovation Hub,” by the Milan-based developer Estate Four. Their proposal was to repurpose the abandoned buildings to a new use. They abandoned that plan a few years ago and sold off the properties.
The one large graphic image UPS brought to the meeting was a proposed idea to emulate the original building façade and incorporate it into their new building. This would present an old-fashioned image to the parkgoers.
Someone asked why UPS chose Red Hook for this facility. They paid over $300 million for properties that had previously sold for much less not so long ago.
“First of all, there has to be property available,” responded Axel Carrion, UPS’s director of public affairs. “There is not that much property available in New York City that works for a logistics type of network. Access to highways is also very important. Being close to the water is another point because it is an opportunity for us to be able to utilize the waterway to avoid a lot of the road traffic.”
With Red Hook facing two or three additional new warehouse facilities, plus the possibility of a giant storage facility being built next to Pioneer Works, the idea of using the waters for receiving and delivering goods makes perfect sense, in a retro kind of way. Red Hook used to be called the city of warehouses, with package boats docking on our waterfront delivering flour, coffee and goods from all over the world.
The heads of the Red Hook Houses Tenant Associations attended the meeting, making their usual demands for jobs for local residents. In fact, UPS has a good record of hiring locally and diversely.
Quoting again from the UPS press release on the opening of the Atlanta facility:
“UPS created more than 3,000 new jobs for Atlanta residents at the new site. The company utilized its Hiring Our Heroes veteran employment program, and partnered with The Center for Working Families and the United Way to recruit and hire employees. The Center for Working Families developed an innovative program, now called the UPS Community Recruitment Initiative, which acts as a centralized talent pool for ready-to-work job candidates who live near the new facility. To further serve the thousands of employees from the surrounding communities, MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) installed its first public transportation bus stop on private property at the new UPS site.”
Laura Lane said at the Red Hook meeting: “We know the opportunities we can provide for many of the people who live in the housing authority. We want to provide great jobs. Every one of our people that is part of our UPS family are union, teamsters, machinists. We make sure we give good benefits, so they can provide for their families. This is what we are going to bring to the Red Hook community.”
Lane also spoke about resiliency, a subject dear to the heart of some in the audience.
“We are a company that believes in sustainability,” Lane said. “We are committed to being green in this community. We are going to use the waterways because if you take it on the water you can minimize your carbon footprint and take more of the trucks off the road so it’s not adding to congestion. There are a lot of ways we want to make this facility not just job-creating but green.”
