Imagine yourself in a setting on the East River shores evoking a time when Native Americans inhabited the city, while at the same time taking in the breathtaking Manhattan skyline.
That’s the concept behind Pier 4, which the Community Board 2 Parks and Recreation Committee unanimously approved Monday.
Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation President Regina Myer came to the committee meeting seeking approval of the plan because the pier is owned by the city, and thus must get approval from the city’s Public Design Commission.
“As part of that review process the city also asks the local community board to review it as well,” Myer said.
Myer explained a portion of the Pier 4 site contains an existing deteriorated railroad gantry from when the site was used for shipping goods across the harbor to Manhattan.
Some of this deteriorated pier will be taken and then other portions of the pier will become an island and be planted heavily so it becomes a sanctuary for wildlife, she said.
“The community members were really supportive of the natural edge on this site. It’s not such an urban setting and a more natural and surprising way to view the harbor,” said Myer.
Myer said the cost of doing the Pier 4 project is $10.8 million, of which $3.5 million is already funded.
Work will start on the pier in the summer of 2012 and be completed one year later in the summer of 2013, she said.
While Myer continues to build out the 85-acre waterfront park stretching from just east of the Manhattan Bridge to Atlantic Avenue, debate continues on how to fund the maintenance of the park once it’s built.
Under the original plan, it is mandated that Brooklyn Bridge Park be self sustainable.
Currently, plans are for a portion of the park to include some housing, using the taxes from its development to sustain the park.
One project, One Brooklyn Bridge Park, which has already been built with proceeds going to the park, recently sold the highest priced condo yet in the borough.
It’s a 9,486 square foot triplex which fetched $8.495 million.
