Renewed Pier Plans Again Run Aground

By Ronald Drenger

Just when it appeared that the long-awaited transformation of Pier A into a tourist and dining destination was finally getting underway, the project has hit another snag.

At a Community Board 1 meeting, William Wachtel, a partner in the company developing Pier A, discusses long-delayed plans for the pier. Photo: Allan Tannenbaum

Earlier this year Wings Point Associates, the project’s developer, seemed poised to resume painstaking renovation work in the three-story landmark building on the pier just south of Battery Park City. Months of discussions with government agencies had produced a plan to free the 17-year-old project from a web of legal and financial troubles.

While the project languishes, the city is losing millions of dollars in tax revenue that were anticipated when Wings Point was chosen to redevelop the pier in 1988. And instead of buzzing with visitors, the last Victorian pier shed in New York, where foreign dignitaries were once welcomed to the city and which was saved from demolition in the 1960’s, sits empty.

As a key element in its renovation, the National Park Service was going to move its security screenings for

Liberty and Ellis Island visitors from temporary tents on the Battery Park promenade into the pier building’s first floor. The second and third floors of the 1868 structure were to be transformed into  dining and event spaces. Harbor cruises were going to operate from the pier, and historic boats were going to dock there.

But last month William Wachtel, a Manhattan attorney and a partner at Wings Point, said that after his firm had “forged an understanding” on the plan with the Park Service and the city’s Economic Development Corporation, the Park Service suddenly declared that it was not ready to commit to the plan.

“We firmly believed we were off to the races,” Wachtel said at a Community Board 1 meeting last month. “By March 1, we thought we had a consensus. We were ready to go, and we are ready to go.”

“We did urge that there be no surprises,” he added. “Well, surprise.”

James Pepper, the Park Service’s superintendent of Manhattan national parks, said after the meeting that the agency was simply conducting a thorough review of the project. “All of it is normal diligence to look at the proposal and analyze its elements before we sign any agreement,” he said.

But Wachtel noted that the Park Service had already commissioned a lengthy study that recommended the move to Pier A. Congress passed legislation in December authorizing the Park Service to lease the space.

“This is the kind of project where I dare someone to tell me why it shouldn’t happen,” Wachtel said.

The Park Service is considering signing a 42-year lease at Pier A. Thomas Ickovic, a principal at Wings Point, said that Fran Mainella, the Park Service’s director, was concerned that the agency might need more space in the future, but that Wings Point had offered them an option to lease more of the first floor if that became necessary.

Brian Feeney, a National Park Service spokesman, said only that the proposal is “under review by our Washington office” and that the review “is taking into account the need for a long-term solution that enhances the visitor experience.”

Wachtel has quickly become a significant player on the Downtown waterfront. In February, he completed a deal with the Port Authority for a new company that he created, BillyBey Ferry, to take over New York Waterway ferry routes between Lower Manhattan and Hoboken, N.J. Wachtel then hired the nearly bankrupt New York Waterway to continue operating the ferries.

BillyBey plans to start commuter ferry service this year between Hoboken and Pier A, and Arthur Imperatore, New York Waterway’s owner, has said that the two companies hope to operate sightseeing cruises from the pier.

Other ferry and cruise companies, including Circle Line Harbor Cruises, which operates the ferries to Liberty and Ellis Islands as well as boat tours from Battery Park, have criticized the Port Authority’s no-bid deal with Wachtel, saying that they should have had a chance to compete for the contract.

Under Wings Point’s plan, the Liberty and Ellis Island ferries would be moved to Pier A, and Circle Line would pay landing fees to Wings Point instead of to the city’s Parks Department.

J. B. Meyer, president of Circle Line, said in an interview that he was “not aware of the full details of the plan” but that his company was discussing it with the Park Service.

Circle Line’s contract with the Park Service to run the ferries to the historic islands will be up for renewal in April 2007. Wachtel will have an opportunity to bid for it.