Coastal resiliency project hurting local businesses and residents

The city broke ground on the Red Hook Coastal Resiliency project in September 2025, and now, almost a year later, it’s more disruptive than ever, according to local business owners and residents.

On Thursday, Aug. 6, a group of local businesses convened with City Council Member Alexa Avilés and representatives from the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC)—including Commissioner Paul Ochoa—to express their concerns over the dramatic loss of business they attribute to the construction on Van Brunt Street and elsewhere.

Following a brief conversation at Dry Dock Wine + Spirit, the group toured the area around the Food Bazaar, making stops at Apotheke, the Food Bazaar itself, and Conover Street.

In an unlucky coincidence, the tour took place the day after construction crews working on the resiliency project hit and ruptured a gas main near IKEA, leaving buildings in the area without gas for about 24 hours. (The leak was resolved by noon of Aug. 6.)

The goal of the walking tour was to “troubleshoot,” Avilés told the crowd inside the wine store, giving business owners a chance to convey directly to the agency in charge what about the construction effort works and, more importantly, what doesn’t.

Outside, storm sewer replacement work was ongoing, shutting off Van Brunt Street from Beard Street to vehicular traffic.

Since work on Van Brunt Street began, business has slowed down for Dry Dock, said owner Ron Kyle. He estimates that his store, which he runs with his wife Mary Dudine Kyle, has lost 10% of business just this year because the street so often is inaccessible. When people can no longer stop with their cars outside the store, order sizes halve, he added.

Kyle told the Star-Revue that they had planned on adding a part-time position, but have so far not done so because of their loss of business. If the issue persists into his high season—October to December—he worries about the store’s future.

“If we’re off by 20-25%, how do I stay open?” he said.

Van Brunt Street is not only inaccessible due to active construction, however: parts of the roadway are also blocked by construction material, a port-a-potty, and vehicles.

Chrissy Fichte, founder and owner of Apotheke, the luxury home fragrance and soap brand located across the street from Dry Dock, told the DDC commissioner that foot traffic to her store is down 70%, caused, she said, by the staging making the street unappealing for pedestrians.

She noted that the construction sprawl seems worse than last year. “It’s everywhere,” she said.

Ochoa immediately told the construction lead on the project to remove the port-a-potty, and promised the group that his team would look at whether staging could be done someplace else.

“I think a lot of the issues that came up are solvable,” Ochoa later told the Star-Revue. “Staging is something that is a bit more flexible. Where it’s placed, like the port-a-potty in front of Apotheke, well, that can move.”

It was the first time visiting the site for the commissioner, who was only appointed to the role in April.

The Red Hook Coastal Resiliency project is a $218-million, two-mile integrated coastal defense system running between Atlantic Basin and Beard Street. The work includes sewer upgrades, flood walls and raised side walks; outside of Dry Dock, the sidewalk will be raised 8 inches, according to Ochoa.

Progressing to the Food Bazaar, Director of Compliance Justin Shon explained that delivery trucks sometimes have trouble reaching the grocery store, adding that once large vehicles get stacked behind one another, it causes a ripple effect throughout the neighborhood; because there are only a few streets that can get vehicles in and out, a traffic jam in one intersection quickly spills over onto other streets.

Shon said he was content with the responses he and the other businesses got from the DDC.

“I think the doors are open to dialogue, but now we just have to go to the next step; hopefully we can come to some good resolutions,” he said.

Some parts of the construction will continue to plague the neighborhood, Ochoa admitted.

“Construction is always painful. It’s New York City, it’s always gonna be tight,” he said. “But I think our goal as an agency, but also the community liaisons, is to try to at least communicate, answer questions, and if there are things that we’re doing that we can fix and pivot, we’ll do them.”

Ochoa, and later Council Member Avilés, said that the Red Hook Coastal Resiliency project will serve as a bit of a pilot project for how the city builds flooding resiliency into a residential neighborhood. (The East Side Coastal Resiliency project on the Lower East Side of Manhattan is happening along a part of the waterfront that is primarily greenspace.)

“Building walls is something that is kind of new. We’ll have lots of lessons from this project as ways to expand our tool kit for communities that face chronic flooding,” Ochoa said.

Avilés highlighted that the project goes in and out of private property, which presents unique challenges.

“My primary focus is to make sure that I protect our businesses and our residents. What we want is for the agencies to be responsive to the realities on the ground,” she said. “It would be an utter travesty for Dry Dock to go out of business because of this project. Any business. So we’re going to just try our best to mitigate all of that.”