Navy Yard Supermarket Still in the Air

A rickety 19th-century building along Admiral's Row miraculously survived last week's snowstorm, but the vision of a Brooklyn Navy Yard with its own supermarket — bringing much-needed fresh food and jobs to Fort Greene — remains in jeopardy because of its sorry state.

The Timber Shed, one of two historic buildings the Navy Yard has agreed to preserve and incorporate into its $60 million development of the area, is on the brink of collapse, according to Navy Yard officials.

And if the 1830s-era Shed crumbles, so might plans for a much-needed 65,000 square-foot ShopRite supermarket and an additional 75,000 square-feet of retail space that has been years in the making.

"It's in very bad shape," said Navy Yard President Andrew Kimball. "It's been months and months of waiting for somebody, namely the federal government, to step up and stabilize the construction."

Nevertheless, the Shed endured last week's snowpocalypse, according to Shane Kavanagh, a spokesman for the Navy Yard. The building's survival is a relief to Navy Yard execs, given that a snowstorm last winter caved in a portion of the building's roof.

"Another heavy snowstorm could endanger the whole plan," Kimball said. "Everything has been positioned on where that building would be."

Right now the feds own the property and are in the process of selling the land to the city. But the deal might not finalize until the end of next summer, leaving the Navy Yard unable to act until then. It plans to break ground on the supermarket project in 2012.

If the project falls through, it would deal a blow to thousands of Fort Greene residents who live within a 10-minute walk of Admiral's Row but travel elsewhere in the borough to shop for groceries.

While the feds and the Navy Yard negotiate, residents in the area — many of them living in the Whitman, Ingersol and Farragut houses — have limited access to high quality and affordable food.

Most of the people living in these city-owned apartments now travel to Red Hook's Fairway or the Pathmark at Atlantic Center. Or they rely on their local bodega.

A host of job opportunities are also in jeopardy should development be stalled.

The Navy Yard wants 30 percent of all contracts in the $60 million project to go to women and minority-owned business, and an additional 10 percent of contracts to go to businesses from the neighborhood.

Plans also call for 25 percent of all construction jobs to go to the local workforce. The supermarket's developer, PA Developers, has agreed to hire locally once the ShopRite opens for business.

But all those possible improvements to the neighborhood are up in the air — especially if the Timber Shed ends up in shambles on the ground.