A deal to bring the city’s largest beer distributor and the Brooklyn Brewery to the Red Hook piers, where the Queen Mary 2 will dock next year, hinges on the resolution of a legal dispute between the Port Authority and the piers’ current tenant, American Stevedoring Incorporated.

The Red Hook-based container shipping company and its subsidiary, American Warehouse, both occupy piers 7 through 10 on lease by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Port Authority is suing American Stevedoring for alleged nonpayment of rent and illegal occupancy of piers 7 and 8.

If the Port Authority wins the suit – a ruling from the Federal Maritime Commission is expected this summer – then American Stevedoring may have to vacate piers 7 and 8 by the end of the year, officials in city government, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. The shipping company, though, can keep operating at piers 9 and 10 at least until its lease expires in March 2007.

In the meantime, the Port Authority and the city’s Economic Development Corporation have begun talks with Phoenix Beverage in hopes the Queens based beer distributor will relocate its headquarters to pier 7, which would bring 400 jobs to Red Hook.

“We would love to move to those piers. We would do it right now if we had the chance,” a vice president of Phoenix Beverage, John Crowley, said. “Unfortunately, nothing can be done until this legal issue is resolved.” Mr. Crowley later said that if a deal could not be reached soon, his company may consider moving to New Jersey.

As one of Phoenix Beverage’s main clients, the Brooklyn Brewery has also discussed a possible relocation to Red Hook with the beer distributor and expansion of its brewery on a site near the pier. Co-founder and president of the brewery, Stephen Hindy, expects the relocation would bring another 70 to 100 jobs to the area.

“Obviously it would be very cost-effective for us to be right next to Phoenix,” Mr. Hindy said. “Instead of having to truck all the beer over to New Jersey, we would be forklifting it into their warehouse.”

Currently, the beer distributor imports about 6,000 containers of Heineken beer a year to New York via the ports of New Jersey, and must bring its beer into the city by truck.

Shipping the beer directly to Brooklyn would help alleviate truck congestion on the bridges and reduce import costs. It could also eliminate the need for federally subsidized barges to move mainland-bound cargo from the Brooklyn waterfront to New Jersey, the president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, Andrew Alper, said.

Rather, such goods would be brought ashore directly to the New York City market. “Phoenix Beverage is the kind of business that would thrive in Brooklyn without requiring massive public subsidies,” Mr. Alper, said.

A spokesman for American Stevedoring, Matt Yates, said the shipping company would be willing to work with the beer distributor to allow both their operations to coexist on the piers, but has been unable to strike a deal with the Port Authority to allow it to stay.

“We have presented a settlement framework that will allow for both port operations and the introduction of a beverage-distribution center,” Mr. Yates said. “We are surprised by Port Authority’s lack of action.”

A spokesman for the Port Authority, Steve Coleman, said the agency is still in preliminary talks with Phoenix Beverage and has not made any decisions on whether they will preserve shipping operations on the piers beyond 2007, only that the cruise terminal will most likely take over pier 10.