Floyd Bennett Field in November: What's Still Open, and What the Empty Hangars Are Being Saved For

The last free Saturday open house at Hangar B was October 24. The National Park Service ran the series on Saturdays from June 6 through that date, with one date in September canceled, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with a ranger tour at 10:30. The William Fitts Ryan Visitor Center, the old terminal and control tower building you see first, is listed by the National Park Service as currently closed, with no reopening date posted. The campsite and camp store are closed too.

That leaves a 1,300-acre field of grassland, salt marsh, tidal mudflats and old runways. It's open every day from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and for November you're mostly on your own out there. A quiet month makes the field's gaps easy to see. You can't buy food or rent a bike, and nothing indoors is open to drop into. Those are the same things two big projects at the field, one announced just weeks ago, are planning to add.

Pack like there's nothing out there, because there isn't

The Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, the nonprofit partner that runs many of the field's public programs, puts it plainly in its event notes: "There are no public concessions at Floyd Bennett Field." Bikes aren't for rent there either. Its October 17 bike tour, a 6.5-mile loop that sold out, told riders to bring their own bikes, water and snacks. Any November trip runs on the same rules:

1. Get there. By car, take Flatbush Avenue south to the fourth traffic light, the last one before the Marine Parkway Bridge toll plaza, and turn left onto Aviation Road. Without a car, the Q35 runs from the Flatbush Av-Brooklyn College 2/5 station to the Floyd Bennett Field entrance stop.
2. Bring the bike from home. The runways are wide and flat, and the loop that takes in the field's main stops is several miles long.
3. Carry food and water for the whole visit. Nothing is sold anywhere on the field.
4. Plan around daylight. The gates close at 9 p.m., but the open runways have very little cover once the sun goes down.

The best scheduled thing this month is a 90-minute bird walk

With the indoor programs done for the season, the date to circle is Sunday, November 15, 9:30 to 11 a.m. JBRPC and NYC Bird Alliance are leading a winter birding walk at the field. They pitch it as a chance to spot winter visitors like shovelers, scoters and mergansers across the field's marshes and meadows.

The details that make it easy:

• Meeting point: The Nest, also called Building 135, at 135 Aviation Road. Enter at the main Flatbush Avenue gate by the large National Park Service sign, go 650 feet on Aviation Road, and turn right into the first parking lot. The Nest is the light gray building next to the lot.
• Gear: Bring binoculars or a scope if you have them. A limited number of loaner binoculars will be on hand.
• Registration: Not required but strongly encouraged. Parking is right next to the meeting spot, and the route mixes paved and unpaved paths.

For a bird-of-prey warmup the weekend before, JBRPC lists Raptorama for Saturday, November 7. It's an annual event put on by NPS Gateway and partners, but it happens at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, not Floyd Bennett Field.

What still runs without a ranger

Everything else you can do in November runs on your own gear, and sometimes a permit. Here's the field from north to south, roughly in the order of JBRPC's tour route:

The National Park Service also lists ice skating and hockey among the field's activities. Brooklyn Paper reported that recreational programming kept going this summer when the former Aviator Sports and Event Center became the Floyd Bennett Sports Complex under a new operator.

Hangar 3 is planned around the things the field doesn't have

The two huge Art Deco brick-and-glass buildings along the old flight line are Hangars 3 and 4, and they sit empty. The Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy and the National Park Service are partners on a plan to bring them back. Set the November checklist above next to JBRPC's plans for the future of Hangars 3 and 4 and the two line up closely:

• No food on site. Hangar 3 is planned to have food stalls, plus a microbrewery or distillery in the old boiler room.
• No bike rentals. The plan includes a bike library.
• A 1,300-acre field and no way around it without your own wheels. An in-park shuttle is part of the plan.
• No open indoor space this month. Hangar 3 would host arts and cultural performances, educational programs and visitor tours. Its giant hangar doors are meant to open the building up to outdoor events like the Public Arts Festival and Run the Runways.

Hangar 4 takes a different direction. It would get labs and prototyping equipment for research on nature-based ways to protect low-lying neighborhoods from storm surge, sea level rise and flooding, around Jamaica Bay and beyond. JBRPC expects the finished hangars to draw more than 100,000 new visitors a year.

The best preview so far was on October 3. That evening JBRPC held its second biennial Floyd Bennett Field Public Arts Festival, projecting 15 new works by 21 artists onto the hangar walls. As Brooklyn Paper reported, guests were asked to bring their own picnic dinners because no food would be sold. The same night, JBRPC launched "Fifty for Floyd Bennett Field," a campaign asking supporters to give $50, or anything from $5 to $500 and up, toward the hangars. JBRPC Executive Director Terri Carta told the paper the festival was "a spectacular way to bring people into the story of Hangars 3 & 4."

Three price tags, and no start date

The cost depends on which source you read and how much of the project it covers:

None of these sources gives a construction start or an opening date. Brooklyn Paper's September 2026 story calls the reactivation anticipated, not scheduled. The small-dollar campaign from the October 3 festival fits a project that is still raising money.

The south end has a lease and a 2027 date

Down past the archery range and the Marian Heiskell Beach Grass Nursery, in the field's southern section, is the site of the future Runway Green outdoor learning campus. Runway Green, a nonprofit, signed a 60-year lease with the National Park Service for seven acres there. BKReader reported it on October 1.

Here's what's committed so far, from BKReader and Brooklyn Paper's September 29 report:

• Cost: $60 million, with $9.3 million in public money secured. That includes $1 million from Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, $3.3 million from the City Council, championed by Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, and $2 million in federal funding. Another $3 million has been set aside for site improvements.
• First phase: A three-acre urban farm built with The Campaign Against Hunger, expected to break ground in 2027.
• Later phases: A public high school, a welcome center, a ropes course and campgrounds, with programs in clean energy, sustainable agriculture, building decarbonization and marine science.
• Audience: Up to 50,000 New York City public school students, reached through partnerships with schools, employers, nonprofits, colleges and public agencies.

"This lease turns a bold vision into a public commitment to New York City's young people," founder and executive director Geoff Roehm said in a statement quoted by BKReader.

A welcome center and campgrounds would fill two more gaps on this month's list, since the visitor center is closed and the existing campsite is shut. Campus construction will be phased and the farm comes first. For this winter, the southern end stays what the tour route shows: beach grass, an archery range, and a path out to the fishing beach on Rockaway Inlet.

If you ride out to the fishing beach this November, you'll pass the site where the 2027 farm is planned. Hangars 3 and 4 are still waiting on funding and a start date.

If you're thinking about what Floyd Bennett Field's next few years could mean for your own corner of Flatlands, the team at Claudette Rolling is glad to talk it through, and to swap tips on the best spot for the November 15 bird walk. Say Hey and book a free consultation.