BY WINNIE McCROY and LINCOLN ANDERSON | A new plan by chef Anthony Bourdain to turn 25 percent of the currently vacant Pier 57 into a massive Singapore-style “hawkers market” has some Chelsea residents choking on their nasi lemak and noodles in concern.
The scheme was discussed at the monthly meeting of Community Board 4 on Oct. 7.
The project calls for an international food hall, plus a restaurant at the end of the mammoth 560,000-square-foot pier complex at W. 16th St.
The chef has been candid about his plans to revamp the abandoned complex and create Bourdain Market, a sprawling gourmet food extravaganza with 155,000 square feet of bakers, artisanal food merchants, butchers, a fishmonger and oyster bar, and restaurants. Restaurateurs April Bloomfeld and Ken Friedman have already signed on.
In addition, Google has scooped up 250,000 square feet inside the pier.
In an article last month in The New York Times about the plan, Bourdain described his vision for the pier as “an Asian market. Eating and drinking at midnight.”
However, some C.B. 4 members, responding to Bourdain’s “up all night” remark about the project, noted that Hudson River Park is a public park with a nightly curfew of 1 a.m., and said Bourdain’s business would likely have to follow those operating hours.
Board Chairperson Christine Berthet said that the applicant had met with the Hudson River Park Trust and C.B. 4’s Business License and Permits Committee about the proposed restaurant and would next go before the City Council’s Business and Licensing Committee.
Meanwhile, C.B. 4 recently completed a traffic study of the area. Jay Marcus and Ernest Modarelli, co-chairpersons of the board’s Transportation Planning Committee, looked at the potential for traffic congestion in the area around Pier 57 and found that it would be negligible. But board member Burt Lazarin questioned whether their study had taken into consideration Bourdain’s 24-hour operating model.
Berthet suggested putting a friendly amendment into their resolution saying that C.B. 4 did not want this project to be open around the clock. But board member Delores Rubin — who is also a past president of the Hudson River Park Advisory Council — countered that it was inappropriate to create a stipulation about something that was not set in stone. She said that these late hours would be “highly unlikely” since it would be against park policy, plus that it would be something they could discuss during a public hearing of the lease.
Rubin added that she had recently called RXR Reality directly to ask about this project, yet they had not mentioned Bourdain at all or commented on the operations that would occur inside the pier.
Regarding traffic congestion outside the pier, Rubin said that in the event Google implements a shuttle service for Pier 57, there would have to be adequate outreach to consult with everyone potentially affected before devising and putting into place a pedestrian safety plan.
The Times article quoted one food expert who raised concerns that Bourdain’s marketplace might merely be geared toward affluent foodies.
However, asked about that before the Friends of Hudson River Park Gala last Thursday, Madelyn Wils, the Park Trust’s president, said it’s simply not accurate.
“We’re not done with it yet,” she said of the planning for Bourdain’s marketplace. “It’s a great idea and it fits right into what we’re doing in the park — to be able to part of a project with food from all over the word, at a price point that people can afford. The word they use is ‘democratic,’ ” Wils said of the Bourdain group.
Assemblymember Deborah Glick also was troubled by the sudden developments on Pier 57, which she said did not happen in the public eye.
“There really was a process that resulted in the people selecting the Young Woo plan for this pier,” she said. “This is now Young Woo plus RXR. They’re going to do some office space for Google, and they needed a change for that. I’m not opposed to tech / office use — I supported Douglas Durst’s plan for Pier 40.
“They did make a presentation to Board 4. But there were some things left out — the possibility of a shuttle bus, the news in the paper that Bourdain wanted to make his restaurants and marketplace operate 24/7. Those things were not part of a public presentation.
“I’m not specifically opposed to Google being a tenant there,” Glick said. “I’m just concerned that it was sort of more of behind-the-scenes pulling details — which really isn’t acceptable. A rooftop park of some sort seems to still be in the mix.”
