The Massive Marina-and-Restaurant Proposal for Transmitter Park Is Dead

The Massive Marina-and-Restaurant Proposal for Transmitter Park Is Dead By , an Emmy Award–winning Curbed writer who has reported on New York City for four years The restaurant-and-marina plans for Greenpoint’s tiny WNYC Transmitter Park, announced in July and greeted with a blast of neighborhood opposition, are dead. A community-board meeting Tuesday scrapped the plan, persuaded in part by a petition suggesting the project was far too large, which got 500 signatures. A new resolution discussed Tuesday night will send the Department of Parks & Recreation on a separate quest to get a desperately needed public bathroom into the park — potentially via another concessionaire who’ll incorporate one into whatever they open. The plan had been unpopular from the start because of its scale, which had in turn stemmed from a particular Parks requirement: The winning operator would have been required to renovate the 1937 building, the former WNYC radio-broadcasting center that gives the park its name. It’s been closed for decades and leaky, and the city’s estimate for rehabbing it was around $5 million, a council member said. At least one local business looked at the numbers and dropped out. The winning proposal, on the other hand, found a way to make the numbers work, apparently from docking fees and party rentals. But the proposal was vague on details and skipped over making a promise to renovate. This new proposal amendment, if passed, won’t require retention of the building, which could become a preservationist issue. (It’s not clear what the building’s fate will be, only that a concessionaire won’t bear the cost of remodeling.) “I don’t think everyone is going to be happy,” says Elissa Iberti, chair of Friends of WNYC Transmitter Park. “But in the end, we’re focusing on what the park needs, and for me, that was not the focus of the plan that came forward.” In other words, the park needs a bathroom and a garden-equipment storage shed. What it doesn’t need, in her view, is to become a wedding venue or a stop for tourists on sunset cruises. The meeting pulled together members of a subcommittee that oversees waterfront parks for Brooklyn’s Community Board 1 as well as volunteers from the park and city park officials. According to Iberti, the subcommittee passed a resolution that trades a requirement for a full renovation of the old building and replaces it with an obligation to install a plaque or other monument to its history. As to whether there might be an issue canceling the winning operator’s contract, a Parks employee who focuses on concessions shared the strange news that it had never actually been signed, Iberti said. In the meantime, she added, the city may explore other ways to get a bathroom in the park. (Could Transmitter soon be the site of one of the mayor’s slick new public restrooms?) “I will be completely honest,” Iberti said, sounding relieved, “I did not think Parks would come back and listen. I think this is sort of unheard of.” No Massive Marina and Restaurant for Transmitter Park Your product is saved! You’ll receive emails when your saved products go on sale. Manage preferences.