A host of elected officials, including three likely contenders for the mayor’s office in 2009, are urging the state to maintain control of Brooklyn’s last container port, a move that would all but put an end to a major Bloomberg administration economic development initiative.

The City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, Rep. Anthony Weiner, Comptroller William Thompson, and Senator Schumer, among others, are pressuring the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to renew the lease of port operator American Stevedoring.

For years, the city and state have been seeking to remove the cargo receiving company from the waterfront in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, envisioning a burgeoning cruise terminal, residential housing, a hotel, and maritime-related industry in its place. But the cruise industry has expanded at a slower rate than expected, and the city dropped its plans for residential development amid neighborhood opposition late last year, significantly deflating the once grand vision for the area. In recent months, the city’s Economic Development Corp. has stopped articulating any specific plans, and backed away from timelines of any action.

“Without a current, stated plan by EDC for redevelopment of the Red Hook piers, the future of the Brooklyn Port remains unresolved,” 21 elected officials wrote yesterday in a letter to the Port Authority. “We call upon the Port Authority to retain ownership of Red Hook Piers 7-11 and immediately renew the current operator’s port lease at the present site.”

In response, the Port Authority and the city issued brief statements suggesting the piers could indeed remain as a working container port, but only after a bidding process to determine the best operator.

“We agree with the Port Authority that a competitive process is an important step in ensuring that the piers are used to their full potential and the maximum number of stevedoring jobs are created,” a spokeswoman for the Economic Development Corporation, Janel Patterson, said in a statement.

The elected officials writing the letter explicitly urged the Port Authority to avoid such a bidding process, saying an uncertain outcome for American Stevedoring would strangle the company’s ability to secure any contracts, putting its hundreds of jobs at risk.

With respect to the bidding process, the position puts Ms. Quinn at odds with the city, an uncommon occurrence as she has largely allied herself with the Bloomberg administration since becoming speaker.

The collapse of the city’s plans for the piers represents what critics call a rare failure of a major economic development initiative for the Bloomberg administration. While renewing a lease for American Stevedoring or another container port operator could still allow for future development at the site, it would surely push any such projects into the hands of a later mayor.

“This ought to be the beginning of a final resolution,” Council Member David Yassky said. “The Port Authority should realize by now that this is not a plan that is going to succeed.”