‘Incredibly reckless’: Massive Staten Island warehouse project sparks traffic concerns

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Even before it’s fully built, a new commercial development on Staten Island is raising concerns about the impact on local traffic.

A jam caused by truck traffic last week outside the warehouse project being built at Arthur Kill Road and Nassau Place in Richmond Valley has led to concerns about what will happen on local streets once the industrial property is fully operational.

“This is before the building is even open, before there are even tenants in there. I’m fearful that what we saw on that day could be a harbinger of things to come,” said Councilmember Frank Morano.

In a social media post on July 8, Morano — a Republican who represents the borough’s South Shore — said that truck drivers were instructed to idle on local roads while waiting to deliver construction materials to the site.

In his video, Morano stated that the trucks caused a massive traffic jam down Arthur Kill Road — almost down to Richmond Valley Road — effectively closing a lane of traffic on one of the South Shore’s major roads.

And while the lawmaker said a backup of this magnitude hasn’t been repeated, he thinks it’s a preview of what will happen when the warehouse opens — on a road which he said “already can’t handle rush hour.”

“You have Arthur Kill Road, which is already overburdened. You have the bridge that’s near this site being very narrow, the road is even narrower. And now you’re throwing industrial level truck volume into the mix, it’s incredibly reckless,” said Morano.

“The roads in that area were never designed for this kind of industrial freight volume, they were designed for neighborhood traffic not commercial supply chains,” he continued.

Morano said he requested that the Department of Transportation look into the situation and that the Department of Buildings issue a stop work order.

On Tuesday, the DOT had installed “No Standing” signs along Arthur Kill Road, outside the warehouse, in response to Morano and other community members’ concerns, according to an agency spokesperson.

And a spokesperson from the DOB said that while a partial stop work order was issued at the site on Monday, it was because of an issue with fire hydrants on site, and not because of Morano’s concerns.

Sagard Real Estate, which is developing the site, did not answer a request for comment about the situation before publication.

An environmental assessment prepared in 2022 for the project mentioned some changes to nearby streets, such as adding a travel lane in each direction on Richmond Valley Road and a left turning lane at the intersection of Arthur Kill Road and Nassau Place.

However, it concluded that with signal timing changes, the project “would not result in significant adverse traffic impacts.”

About the project

The warehouse, which will be used for the storage of manufactured goods, is slated to open before the end of the year, according to developers.

The warehouse facility will offer 331,700 square feet of divisible warehouse space with 60 loading docks and two drive-in doors.

According to New York City Planning documents, the project was disapproved by Community Board 3 in October 2022, but approved by the City Planning Commission later that same year.

“The warehouse is being designed to accommodate up to three tenants…,” noted the zoning application. “The Proposed Development, a high-cube warehouse, would be used for the storage and/or consolidation of manufactured goods prior to their distribution to retail locations or other warehouses.”

In other words, the goods received and distributed from the facility would move in bulk from business to business, rather than as individually packaged products from businesses to individual consumers, the document noted.

The application also stated that the facility would not serve as “a regional or local freight forwarder for time-sensitive shipments via air freight or ground carriers,” nor would it provide truck maintenance, washing or fueling facilities.

Previous reporting from the Advance/SILive noted that the site was home to the Tottenville Copper Company in the late 1800s, and by 1913, the company was producing 100 million pounds of refined copper there.

However, the company fell on hard times during the Depression and was sold to Western Electric in 1931 and renamed Nassau Smelting & Refining Co.

Over the next 70 years, the name of the facility and its operation changed several times.

In 1996, Lucent Technologies assumed ownership of the site when the company spun off from AT&T. But it is documented that during its more than 100 years of operation, the approximately 46-acre site was contaminated with heavy metals.

In 2006, Lucent began the cleanup of contaminated soil, which reportedly contained lead, copper and zinc, preventing the property from being used.

In 2016, the property was purchased from Lucent for $30 million by the Manhattan-based Bridgewater Capital. After a plan for 646 luxury senior housing units on the site was shot down by the community and elected officials one year later, it was sold for $30.6 million.

At the time of the sale, Brian McGowan of Casandra Properties, the exclusive leasing agent for the site, didn’t disclose the intention for the property, but said warehouse uses were on the table.