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Park Trust Keeps Pier 40 Fate Hanging in the Air
But instead of resolving the question of the pier’s future at their Jan. 31 meeting, the Hudson River Park Trust’s board of directors opted to take a rain check, rescheduling their vote until their next meeting in late March. Mark Costello, the head of Downtown Little League, which uses the fields on Pier 40, said the decision to push back the vote came as a victory. “The wonderful thing is that all the signs were pointing towards Related winning this,” Costello said, referring to the plan by Related Companies to build movie theaters and a permanent home for the Cirque du Soleil on the pier. “And the community stopped it.” Board chairwoman Diana Taylor acknowledged public opposition to the Related plan. “It is incredibly important to the park that we get this pier right,” Taylor said at the outset of the discussion. Just what “getting it right” means is far from clear. The park’s request for proposals to repair and redevelop the pier yielded only two proposals: that of the Related Companies, and another, by the developer CampGroup, which proposed to maintain much of the park’s current uses but to reserve some space for private children’s camp activities. Both proposals have met with opposition from Downtown parents, whose children use the fields on the pier, and neither plan meets all of the requirements of the park’s detailed terms. A third plan devised after the deadline comes from the Pier 40 Partnership, a group of Greenwich Village residents unhappy with the first two options. It would keep the fields intact and fund the renovation with private money and tax-free bonds. Community opposition to the two official proposals was evidenced by a turnout of more than 100 parents to the meeting and by the recommendation of the Hudson River Park Trust Advisory Council, which strongly recommended the Pier 40 Partnership plan. But board members were less convinced. “It’s hard to feel comfortable with any of these options,” said Joseph Rose. “What are our choices here?” Hudson River Park Trust president Connie Fishman said the board is not locked into anything because neither of the official proposals meet all the required conditions. Taylor hinted that one solution could involve collaboration between multiple applicants, but that the legal restrictions surrounding a public request for proposals had made detailed conversations about that possibility difficult. Board member Henry Stern cautioned residents that any plan will need to generate revenue for the park. “There needs to be something on this pier that brings people in,” Stern said. “And whether it’s a circus or movies or a stag show, you need something that’s going to get them to part with their money.” “It’s clear that it would not be in the best interest of the Trust to accept or reject any of the plans at this point,” Taylor said. “Doing nothing is not an option either.” At Taylor’s request, the board opted to hold off on a vote for the next two months. Charlie Sewell, a coach who also uses the fields, said he hopes the deferment will encourage the Partnership and the CampGroup team to collaborate. “Now they have time to do that,” Sewell said. Jai Nanda, the executive director of Urban Dove, one of the backers of the CampGroup plan, said his team is open to the possibility of collaboration. “We’re willing to work with anyone to move this forward,” he said.
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