On Wednesday Governor Pataki announced, in a major boost for the Hudson River Park project, that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation will allocate $70 million to complete the park’s southern Tribeca section.
The funding was long anticipated, but slow in being approved. Connie Fishman, the Trust’s president, said that because it takes about six months to actually obtain the L.M.D.C. funds, pile driving — which needs to be done in warm weather — to rebuild the Tribeca piers won’t start until next spring. Because there are so many uses on Piers 25 and 26, Fishman said, work on the entire park section won’t start until next spring, as well.
When completed, Hudson River Park, stretching from Chambers to 57th Sts., will have 13 public-use piers as well as a waterfront esplanade.
In addition, Pataki announced the L.M.D.C. is allocating $150 million for the Lower East Side waterfront redevelopment project. The project will upgrade the riverfront from the Battery to the south end of East River Park, adding lawns and a sand beach on a former pier and glass-enclosed pavilions under the F.D.R., the underside of which would receive more attractive cladding, and upgrading the end of Allen and Pike Sts. The funds are enough to pay for the project’s first phase.
In other Hudson River Park developments, Clinton Cove, in the park’s northern section, will open this week.
