Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled a plan on Monday with the State of the State address to build on the framework of the High Line in order to give pedestrians a link between the Moynihan Train Hall and Brookfield’s 5.4-million-square-foot Manhattan West development.
Pitched as a program to stimulate the post-COVID-19 retail market and to drive the redevelopment of Manhattan’s West Side, Cuomo said, with involvement from Brookfield Property Group, Empire State Development, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Friends of the High Line.
With a $15 billion hole in the state’s budget and no word on cost or where the cash for the buildout will come from, the feasibility of the proposal is unclear.
“This will be the most ambitious redevelopment that New York City has seen in decades,” Cuomo said. “When the private sector economy lags, state governments build infrastructure and spur development. The beautiful Moynihan Train Hall is open, the renovation of Penn Station and this High Line extension project begin this year. This connection is part of a district-wide redevelopment of the West Side that will jumpstart the private market in a post-COVID world.”
According to the governor’s office, the elevated green space will be expanded eastward at 10th Avenue and 30th Street along Dyer Avenue to the mid-block between 9th and 10th Avenues. The governor’s office says this is just the first phase of the High Line’s expansion in name of safe pedestrian space along the West Side.
“The central element of Brookfield’s Manhattan West complex will be a 2-acre landscaped public plaza that will be surrounded by 240,000 square feet of curated restaurants and shops and enlivened year-round with public events, art installations and an ice rink programmed, in part, by the NHL,” Ben Brown, Managing Partner for Brookfield Property Group, said. “The High Line extension, which will link the new Moynihan Train Hall to the Manhattan West plaza and the rest of the High Line, will be a major addition to the entire area, making it easier and more enjoyable for pedestrians to access and navigate Manhattan West and the neighborhood as a whole.”
While Cuomo’s four-part State of the State address kicked off Monday morning with an express interest in jumpstarting a new vision for New York’s economy, the continued attention to the development of the West Side, specifically Hudson Yards, caters to the wealthiest New Yorkers.
Planned at Brookfield’s Manhattan West is a signature restaurant by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, a Whole Foods that opened in 2020, a 35,000-square-foot flagship location for Peloton, Class-A office space as well as 844 units of living space at The Eugene.
View a video of the proposal from Moynihan to Manhattan West here.
