Construction is underway on Box Street Park, a 2.5-acre public park at 65 Commercial Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Designed by Stantec and developed by the New York City Economic Development Corporation in partnership with the Department of Parks and Recreation, the $40 million capital project will convert a former Metropolitan Transportation Authority parking facility along Newtown Creek into waterfront open space with an elevated esplanade, ADA-accessible pathways, terraced granite seating, gardens, a lawn, basketball court, picnic area, separate dog runs for small and large dogs, and a public restroom.
The park was first proposed as part of the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront rezoning, which has since delivered tens of thousands of new homes to North Brooklyn. Recreation space delivery lagged behind, leaving Greenpoint with some of the least park space per resident in the city. The lot spent the intervening years as an MTA facility storing Access-A-Ride vehicles and emergency equipment. A 2018 design, then budgeted at $21.7 million, was sent back for revisions after Community Board 1 objected to a railed sea wall that blocked direct access to the water, and subsequent testing found the shoreline would require more environmental remediation than anticipated.
The project is being fully funded with $34.5 million from the Office of the Mayor, including a $2 million allocation in the September Capital Commitment Plan, along with $500,000 from the City Council and approximately $5 million from local developers through air rights sales and private funds. Renderings show the park organized along an elevated esplanade on the Newtown Creek bulkhead, with terraced granite seating facing the water and pathways looping through gardens and a central lawn. Plantings will use native species including blackgum and Eastern redbud trees, purple love grass and little bluestem grasses, and Virginia rose and seaside goldenrod.
What remains unknown is the timeline for full completion, particularly the expansion phase. Once the Emergency Response Unit departs, the park will expand by an additional 0.5 acres, or roughly 25,000 square feet, closing a gap between the waterfront esplanades to the east and west. The source does not specify when that departure will occur or when the expanded portion will open to the public.