On one of the most desirable tracts of waterfront land in Brooklyn, underwater pests have eaten through the wood pilings of two piers. A freight terminal is in a state of disrepair. Four out-of-order cranes stand rusting and are about to be sold for scrap.

… but that view!

With panoramas of Lower Manhattan and New York Harbor, the 122-acre-property in the Red Hook neighborhood offers developers an enticing and potentially lucrative opportunity to reinvent a gritty industrial district into a residential neighborhood with high-rise apartment buildings, shops and offices.

While some see the area’s vast potential for redevelopment, others want to protect the existing marine operations and restore the working waterfront they see as vital to New York City.

For decades, supporters of Brooklyn’s maritime industry have fought against and defeated near-constant efforts to sell the land and shoreline, once one of the East Coast’s busiest ports.

“This view here is a curse,” said Mike Stamatis, the chief executive of the port’s operator, Red Hook Terminals, adding that he was not surprised the land was seen as desirable. “If I’m a commercial real estate developer, there would be very few other places that I’d want to reimagine and create a new development.”