The many renovation projects at Red Hook Rec Center

Following another year where the Red Hook pool was closed to open the summer and the recreation center too was closed for a (brief) period in August, concerns have been renewed among some area residents that the city could potentially close the complex completely.

But concerns might be overblown, as the 90-year-old pool and rec center are set to undergo renovations starting in 2028. A combined $122 million in city and federal funds have been dedicated to the project, which currently is in design stages. (The project does not have an estimated completion date, and, notably, the design phase has remained at 5% complete since at least July 31, 2025.)

This is far from the first time the Red Hook Recreational Center has been slated for upgrades.

In 1975, the 1975-76 Planning Commission proposed that the recreational area receive $500,000 for general rehabilitation in 1978 and 1979, according to The Phoenix, the Downtown Brooklyn Paper that published between 1972 and 1993, but those funds never materialized.

A few years later, the Phoenix reported that the city included $2.9 million for the pool and the bath house (today’s rec center) in its 1979 capital budget, including for an architect to design an “overall rehabilitation plan.” However, it appears that the Parks Department failed to follow through due to lack of funds.

In April 1981, then-manager of Brooklyn Community Board 6, Bob Acito, claimed that the facility was going to receive a $10 million renovation job at the end of the summer. However, no such funding is mentioned in public records; instead, plans for the first major renovation of the Red Hook Play Center (which included the pool and the rec center) were filed in 1983, with work finishing in 1986. This was also when the site became known officially as the Red Hook Recreation Center.

After Superstorm Sandy, the boiler in the rec center was reconstructed in 2014 with the help of both federal and city funds.

Reconstruction work at the pool also occurred a few years later, in 2018, and in May the following year, three members of Congress—Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Rep. Nydia Velázquez—announced $8 million in federal funds to repair further Sandy-caused damage to the recreation center.

In 2021, the city began a search for architects for the project, but after Hurricane Ida damaged the boiler again, the center was forced to close for a time.

The ongoing refurbishment will address the facade, roof, boiler, and electrical system, making the center resilient against future severe storms. And while construction will cause more temporary closures, look for the rec center to remain a feature of Red Hook for the foreseeable future.