National Park Service officials say that a six-month study commissioned by their agency and scheduled for release this month will recommend that security screenings for Liberty and Ellis Island visitors be moved to the historic 1886 building on Pier A, just south of Battery Park City. Tourists now line up at a temporary facility nearby, in Battery Park.

The proposal’s feasibility hinges largely on the resolution of a bitter legal struggle between the city, which owns the pier, and a Long Island developer, Wings Point Associates. The developer is fighting to finish the job it began 13 years ago of turning the picturesque pier into a Downtown destination, with restaurant, catering hall, tourist center and shops. The painstaking restoration of the landmark three-story building is about two-thirds complete.

The project is just the sort sought by planners, civic groups, and the city to help revitalize Lower Manhattan, but it has been stalled for almost two years.

The city is trying to evict Wings Point, saying the company defaulted on its lease by failing to pay rent or meet other financial obligations. Claiming that Wings Point owes it at least $2 million and lacks funds to complete the job, the city’s Economic Development Corp. (EDC), which is in charge of the pier’s development, wants to find another developer.

Wings Point, which spent seven years securing required permits before signing a 49-year lease and starting construction in 1997, is suing the city for allegedly withholding promised funding and not fulfilling other commitments, such as meeting with potential investors.

After spending $20 million on the project, the company says, it has been illegally barred from the pier by the city and is being denied revenues from ferry services operating to and from an adjacent dock.

Proponents of the proposal hope it will pave the way for a resolution of the dispute and a resumption of the pier’s renovation.

“It appears that Pier A would really work well for us, but there are many complicated issues,” Thomas Dyer, the National Park Service’s chief planner for the northeast region, said last month. “I hope the report will move all the parties forward to try to find some solution.”

Dyer said the security proposal, which would provide Wings Point with rent revenue and bring thousands of tourists through the pier every day, could also help solve some of the financial wrangles by making the restoration project more attractive to investors.

Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman for the EDC, said she could not comment on the proposal while the Pier A cases remained in litigation.

The Park Service, which oversees Liberty and Ellis islands, began security screenings for visitors in December 2001, when the sites reopened after the terrorist attack. It has been looking for a permanent site for the checkpoint because the current tented facility, just south of Pier A, is too small and was always intended to be temporary.

The study, conducted by a consulting firm for the Park Service, determined that other prospective sites, such as the South Street Seaport and the Coast Guard building next to the Staten Island Ferry terminal, were unworkable.

Work on Pier A, which was supposed to be finished in the late 1990’s, is at a standstill, costing the city millions of dollars in payroll and sales taxes that the project was expected to generate. Dyer said the Parks Service plans to lobby the city, elected officials and Downtown groups to support the new plan and urge a settlement between the EDC and Wings Point.

“What it means to the experience of visitors to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the importance of all of that to tourism in Downtown Manhattan, might get other folks to bring some pressure to bear,” said Dyer. “Once the report is finalized, we’ll start knocking on some doors.”