Erie Basin Bargeport is the metropolitan region’s largest berthing facility for tugs and barges, and one of the last sections of working waterfront in New York City. Located in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, it is the homeport to over 200 tugs, barges, ferryboats and other working vessels. It is zoned M3-1 for heavy manufacturing, and is located within the recently established South Brooklyn Industrial Business Zone (IBZ) to nurture industrial businesses and protect them from rezoning.
The Bargeport is owned and operated by Erie Basin Marine Associates (EBMA), a partnership, which is owned by two barge companies, Hughes Bros., Inc. and Reinauer Transportation Corporation, both of which have been family businesses for more than four generations. Hughes and Reinauer jointly purchased Erie Basin from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1992 to be a home port for their vessels and to ensure their long-term growth.
Erie Basin Bargeport is an essential component of the City’s working waterfront. Due to its natural configuration and deep water, this resource is unique and irreplaceable. It is one of the largest privately held marine facilities in the Northeast United States.
The Bargeport is also part of a thriving industrial district in the Red Hook section of Southwest Brooklyn. Today there are approximately 500 manufacturing and industrial firms in Red Hook, over a 60% increase in the number of businesses since 1991.
Erie Basin is vital to the maritime industry in NY Harbor. There are at least 750 tugs and barges in NY Harbor that must have space to tie up between jobs for in-water construction and transport, as well as repairs, crew change, and storage. Approximately 25% of these vessels homeport at Erie Basin.
We and our tenants employ 681 workers at Erie Basin, including 334 crewmembers, and we have been a presence in the Red Hook community for over thirty years. Reinauer’s barge movements of fuel eliminate 567,000 fuel trucks on area roads each year. Another tenant, Buchanan Marine, moves 6,000,000 tons of aggregate annually (used to make concrete and asphalt).
The Bargeport is one of only a handful of such areas in the City, and was identified in the City’s own Maritime Support Services Study in 2006 as an area that must be preserved for maritime use. Various city agencies have recently voiced their support for Erie Basin as a critical piece of waterfront infrastructure. There is no other location in New York City that has the depth, shelter, and docks to accommodate the more than 200 vessels home-ported in Erie Basin. Clearly, Erie Basin is a piece of New York Harbor that is necessary to the maritime industry and the economy in general.
