In the News: More on Pier A

••• “Has peace and prosperity finally come to Pier A? […] The Victorian pier, which juts out from Battery Park, has a development partner, the Dermot Company (the Post reports), and a restaurant operator, Harry and Peter Poulakakos (the Times reports). The Poulakakos family owns or co-owns a number of popular Financial District spots, like Financier Patisserie, Harry’s Steak, and Adrienne’s Pizza Bar. […] The Battery Park City Authority has just approved the Dermot/Poulakakos lease. The redevelopment of Pier A (the city authorized $30 million for the work back in 2008) includes a visitor’s center, enhanced waterfront access, 30,000 square feet of public plaza space and a 12,500-square-foot public promenade. And now, the grub. Here’s how the operation is described in a press release: The Poulakakos Family’s plan calls for a casual dining restaurant and an oyster bar with outdoor seating, coffee shop and visitor center to occupy the first floor of the pier which in total measures approximately 39,000 square feet. A fine dining restaurant and event venue will be located on the second floor of the building, with a smaller event and entertainment venue located on the partial third floor. There will be public seating on the plaza and promenade adjacent to the Pier.” (Curbed)

••• Ghastly: “A beer-swilling shindig [Didn’t know shindigs could drink. —Ed.] turned tragic early yesterday when a young woman mysteriously plunged to her death from a 26th-floor condo in a luxurious Tribeca high-rise, cops said. Hana Lin, 26, fell from the balcony of apartment 2640 at 101 Warren St. and landed on an elevated, park-like common area on the fifth-floor roof of a Barnes & Noble, police said. No foul play is suspected. A source at the scene suspected that Lin stumbled over the waist-high rail trying to retrieve her cellphone, which was found next to her.” (New York Post)

••• “Patience and Fortitude, the lions at the 42nd Street Main Library as nicknamed by former Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia during the depression, may have some distant cousins in Battery Park City [at the BPC library] if the Community Board 1, New York State Department of Transportation and New York Public Library approve the plan. The sculptor proposing the lions, Tom Otterness, will have his first chance at showing his design to the public at an upcoming CB1 committee meeting in April.” (Broadsheet Daily)

••• About that Death & Co. spin-off coming to FiDi: “When the place opens, it’ll have a daytime program at street level with coffee […] and eats like sandwiches, ‘compelling offerings for local businesses’ without a lot of good breakfast and lunch options.” (Grub Street)

••• “Citigroup is considering moving as many as 400 jobs from New York to Jersey City, as New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority on Tuesday approved a $12.3 million subsidy package in an effort to woo the Manhattan-based bank.” The Wall Street Journal article goes on to quote someone from Citi saying they want to make room for more hires in Tribeca.

••• “Unless the state restores $25 million in funding to the city’s budget, the city will be forced to close 105 senior centers, including the one at Independence Plaza. The seniors at the Tribeca housing complex have launched a letter-writing campaign and are gathering petition signatures to save their beloved program, which many described as a lifeline from the isolation of aging.” (DNAinfo)

••• “Bob Townley is a man of many dreams, and many dreams-come-true. His latest wish, one of his most ambitious yet, hangs on a wall of the Downtown Community Center in Tribeca. It is a rendering, by architect David Rockwell, of a gym and theater that Townley hopes to see constructed on Warren Street, just east of the community center and suspended over parts of the dog run and playground between P.S. 234 and its annex on the other side. […] Townley acknowledges that the project, if it’s to happen, is a long way off. But he is setting out now to generate interest among potential “patrons,” and he plans to introduce the idea next month to Community Board 1.” Italics mine. Will no patch of ground go unbuilt on? (Tribeca Trib)

••• Pricing info for 471 Washington (at Canal) has been announced—presumably it’ll be easier to sell once the building’s black shroud is removed. (Real Deal)

••• “Pace University’s plans to build a 23-story dormitory in the heart of the Financial District have some residents living closest to the project fearing for their safety and their sanity.” (Tribeca Trib)

 

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