The Brooklyn Navy Yard is adding interesting companies — and lots of space

Pliant Energy Systems is one of the new companies that signed a lease at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 2014, according to a release from the industrial park. The former military facility signed on a total of four new tenants last year, and Crye Precision and New Lab also both expanded their footprints.
Pliant is still developing its products. One of them is an intriguing underwater device that uses the motion of water to generate power. The U.S. Navy gave the company a grant to develop the technology as a way to recharge drone subs, according to The Daily News. The other product is a pump meant to be used on very small farms, where the flow of the water source powers the pump. The company has also received multiple rounds of grants from the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) (which our sister site Technical.ly DC recently wrote about) and the Department of Agriculture.
As 2015 opens, the Navy Yard is looking to open a lot of additional manufacturing space. David Ehrenberg, president and CEO, said, “In order to continue supporting the growth of good-paying jobs in 2015, we have $200M of construction activity happening at this very moment and an additional ~$100M kicking off this year.”
The work currently in progress includes:

• Building 77: a 1 million-square-foot building undergoing a $140 million renovation.
• Green Manufacturing Center: a 250,000-square-foot adaptive reuse space, nearing completion.
• Admiral’s Row: a site that will include 127,000 square feet of light industrial space; 89,000 square feet and a 7,000-square-foot office/community facility, currently in the phase of reviewing proposals.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard renewed 42 of its leases this year. “The 300-acre Brooklyn Navy Yard, the leading industrial park in New York City with 3.5 million square feet of leasable space, consisting of 40 rentable buildings housing over 300 businesses, is fully occupied,” according to the release, which added that over 7,000 people are employed there today.