Sunset Park has always been a neighborhood that does the work. Generations of immigrant families — Chinese, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and more recently South Asian — have built businesses, raised kids, and endured the pollution that comes with living next to one of Brooklyn’s most industrial waterfronts. Now that waterfront is being reimagined as the center of New York City’s climate innovation economy, and the stakes for the people who actually live here couldn’t be higher.
BATWorks: A $100 Million Climate Hub at the Brooklyn Army Terminal
The biggest development reshaping Sunset Park’s identity is BATWorks, a $100 million climate innovation hub being built inside the historic Brooklyn Army Terminal at 140 58th Street. The project, backed by the NYC Economic Development Corporation, aims to create a 200,000-square-foot facility where climate tech companies can develop, prototype, and scale their products.
A temporary space opened on the 59-acre campus in early 2026, and the permanent facility — covering roughly 130,000 square feet in Building A — is expected to open in 2028. The hub is being led by the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), with a “Pilots at BAT” program already running as of January 2026 to help climate technologies develop and scale.
The numbers NYCEDC is projecting are significant: over 600 jobs created, 150 startups served over 10 years, and $2.6 billion in estimated economic impact for the city. The question residents are asking is straightforward — will those jobs and that economic impact actually reach Sunset Park families, or will it bypass them the way industrial waterfront development has before?
Pier 6: A Public Waterfront Takes Shape
Further along the waterfront at MADE Bush Terminal, NYCEDC has broken ground on a $25 million redevelopment of Pier 6 — transforming an abandoned five-acre pier into a public green space with views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Statue of Liberty. The project, designed by landscape architecture firm SCAPE, will stabilize the 60-year-old pier structure, improve coastal resiliency, and protect native plants and wildlife. Completion is expected in 2027.
For a neighborhood that’s been walled off from its own waterfront by industrial fencing for decades, this is a meaningful shift. If you’re looking for new green spaces opening across the city this spring, Pier 6 is one to keep on your radar.
A 1,000-Person Music Venue Is Coming
The cultural landscape is shifting too. The team behind Public Records — the beloved Gowanus club known for experimental and avant-garde programming — is opening a new 1,000-person music and arts venue at MADE Bush Terminal. The space is expected to open in late 2026 and could turn Sunset Park into a serious destination for live music in a borough that’s already full of great venues.
GRID 2.0: The Community’s Own Vision
While the city drives large-scale development from the top, Sunset Park’s community organizations have their own plan. GRID 2.0 (Green Resilient Industrial District) is a community-led vision that by 2035 imagines Sunset Park as a model for clean, inclusive economic development — with affordable, energy-efficient housing replacing fossil fuel infrastructure along the waterfront, green streets protecting residents from heat and pollution, and local employment in clean energy, urban agriculture, and green transportation.
The tension between the city’s investment-driven approach and the community’s equity-centered vision is real, and it’s playing out in real time. Sunset Park has dealt with industrial pollution, congested truck routes, and displacement pressure for years. Whether BATWorks and the waterfront transformation deliver on their promises — or just layer new development on top of old inequities — depends on what happens next.
What You Need to Know
- BATWorks, a $100 million climate innovation hub at the Brooklyn Army Terminal (140 58th Street), has a temporary space open now with the permanent 130,000-square-foot facility expected in 2028
- A $25 million public waterfront park at Pier 6 in MADE Bush Terminal is under construction, expected to open in 2027
- A new 1,000-person music venue by the Public Records team is opening at MADE Bush Terminal in late 2026
- NYCEDC projects BATWorks will create over 600 jobs and serve 150 startups over 10 years
- The community-led GRID 2.0 plan envisions Sunset Park as a model for clean, inclusive economic development by 2035
Want to explore more of Brooklyn’s evolving neighborhoods? Check out our guide to NYC’s best food markets and halls — several Sunset Park vendors make the list.
