The glass enclosed walkway connecting the new Goldman Sachs headquarters to the Embassy Suites Hotel building in Battery Park City will remain accessible to the public, James Cavanaugh, president of the Battery Park City Authority, told Downtown Express.
Goldman Sachs has been in negotiations with Forest City Ratner to purchase the 14-story hotel building across the street from its $2.4 billion headquarters, which is currently under construction. In addition to housing a 453-room hotel, the building houses an 11-screen Regal movie theater, a New York Sports Club, a DSW shoe store and several restaurants.
The Embassy building at 102 North End Ave., between Vesey and Murray Sts., is separated from the Goldman headquarters site by a pedestrian walkway, which Goldman owns and plans to enclose with glass when it completes the 740-foot tall headquarters.
The investment bank agreed when it signed the land lease with the Battery Park City Authority, which controls the neighborhood, that the public would continue to have access to the walkway once it was enclosed. But with the security-conscious investment bank potentially owning both properties on the site, local residents expressed concern that they might lose easy access to the pedestrian walkway and the shops and restaurants along the strip.
“The public has to have access and that presumably means it won’t be too difficult to get through,” Cavanaugh told Downtown Express when asked if the authority would tolerate security stations at the entrances to the walkway.
Much of the building’s 216,000 sq. ft. of retail space is accessible only from the pathway, which runs parallel to North End Ave.
Cavanaugh also expressed confidence that Goldman would not make any changes to the hotel or the movie theater, both of which are mandated in the land lease. “Goldman told me they don’t plan to make any changes,” said Cavanaugh. Retail, however, is not required.
The investment bank could negotiate with the authority to change the terms of the land lease, which currently do not allow for office space.
When asked if the authority would be open to renegotiating the lease with a new buyer, Cavanaugh said that would be “pure speculation.”
“We like a theater there and we like a hotel there,” he said.
—Ronda Kaysen
WWW Downtown Express
