RED HOOK — One hundred bike parking spots along with air pumps and workstations will be installed in the neighborhood this summer.
The O’Connell Organization, a real estate development business based in Red Hook, is teaming up with Rack and Go, a company based in White Plains that specializes in bicycle infrastructure projects, to increase the neighborhood’s bike parking facilities.
In the next month or so, 50 U-shaped racks, which can hold two bicycles each, eight air pumps and four workstations equipped with tools for minor repair and maintenance will be installed in Red Hook, said Steven Frind, founder of Rack and Go.
While the facilities will mostly be focused around Red Hook properties owned by the O’Connell Organization, they will be available for public use, said Gregory O’Connell, principle of the group.
The bike racks will be located near Fairway Market at the Beard and Robinson Stores Buildings at 421-499 Van Brunt St. and adjacent to Pier 44 Waterfront Garden and the Waterfront Barge Museum, he said.
The racks, which will be customized with the O’Connell Organization’s logo, will also be installed along the south side of the Merchant Stores Building at 175 Van Dyke St., Frind and O’Connell said.
O’Connell received a handful of requests for more bike parking from some of his commercial tenants, including small business owners with employees who cycle to work. He also noticed an increase in cyclists visiting Red Hook, particularly during the summer.
“It seemed logical to provide infrastructure in order to promote bicycle travel to Red Hook,” O’Connell said.
Red Hook’s first bike parking facility was approved for Van Brunt Street last month but local business owners and biking advocates agreed that the neighborhood needed more bike racks and corals to serve the growing number of cyclists rolling into the neighborhood.
