By Will Glovinsky
The Parks Department will ask the City Council’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee on Wednesday for permission to negotiate concession agreements with two developers that would afford their private buildings access to the High Line. Though on private property, the access would be open to the public; and one building, the Caledonia condominium, at 450 W. 17th St., would maintain a staircase, elevator and A.D.A.-compliant public restrooms. The other building, to be developed at 333 Tenth Ave., would also have public access to the new elevated park and might contribute other unspecified amenities.
Both the Parks Department and the Friends of the High Line — the operators of the new park — made it clear that any connections from private buildings will also be public access points. Parks spokesperson Phil Abramson said in an e-mail that any potential connections will be “considered in context with the High Line’s landscape design, location of existing and planned entrances, and potential public amenities that may be provided.”
Andre Balazs’s new Standard Hotel had also been seeking High Line access. Novac Noury, who owns a development site on Little W. 12th St., also wants High Line access, but his property no longer has a connection to the elevated park, after a platform that formerly extended to the old railway was demolished for the hotel project.
