Once a building ground for battleships, the site is a city-within-a-city where companies can test their solutions for a greener future.

Brendan Hermalyn started a company in 2021 to reduce carbon emissions from buildings by making a special filter, one that captures greenhouse gases and converts them into a powder that can be recycled. But when he pursued testing of his company’s carbon-capture system in New York City, some building owners were skeptical.

“It’s a chicken-and-the-egg question,” said Dr. Hermalyn, the founder and chief executive of Thalo Labs. “Everyone wants to be the first — after someone else has tested it.”