Brooklyn Brewery co-founder and current president Steve Hindy has been elected to the board of directors of The Beer Institute (yup, that would be the national trade association representing the brewing industry, God bless ’em).
My colleague Chris Shott profiled Mr. Hindy last May as an unlikely real estate power broker in Brooklyn, which includes his involvement with Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner and with Mayor Bloomberg’s sweeping rezoning of parts of the borough:
In addition to sponsoring block parties and music festivals that, in the words of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, “helped make Williamsburg hip,” the Brooklyn beer magnate was also an outspoken supporter of a massive neighborhood rezoning—debated for years before finally being approved in 2005—that didn’t exactly work out the way he envisioned.
“By establishing industrial business zones, the rezoning should have protected businesses like mine,” Mr. Hindy said. “But by allowing hotels, banks, and chain stores in the zones, it pushed up rents.”
The man credited with bringing brewing back to Brooklyn, where beer factories once thrived pre-Prohibition, has been cheering on big development a lot lately.
His vocal support for developer Bruce Ratner’s controversial Atlantic Yards project, in particular, drew the ire of some of his most devoted customers and even prompted a small-scale boycott of his hallowed local brews.
