Battery Maritime Building: Manhattan's Pike Place?

1.

turn the FDR into a summertime beachfront like paris is doing with the pompidou expwy and it'll be connected to the rest of manhattan perfectly.

2.

It would be more convenient to shop in Brooklyn than this place. Seriously, this will not be a "destination" shop. Even if I were in the area I wouldn't go there because it is so out-of the way.

3.

Actually, it sounds a bit more like San Francisco's Ferry Building, which despite being a bit out of the way - it's downtown, but not many folks live in that area - has become insanely popular. The Ferry Bldg has foodie boutiques (bakeries, cheese shops, etc) plus a farmers market & restaurants, and it works pretty well...

4.

#1 this is on the west side, not the FDR (but neat if weird idea for the FDR). And its really not that incovenient. The most inconvenient part is fighting through the tourists waiting for a ferry to Ellis Island. And seems like it would be convenient for those living in battery park city.

5.

There are foodie boutiques and restaurants all over Manhattan, last time I checked. SF is hardly an apt comparison.

6.

I don't care if it's convenient or not. That build deserves a renovation. It's one of my most favorite buildings in all of New York City. It's charming, uniquely shaped, and--best of all--not ignorant of the harbor like so much of the rest of the city.

7.

This is a great project. Its not that isolated, only a few blocks from Ground Zero and Battery Park City. Go downtown on a Saturday sometime, its hopping down there now. This project will go a long way to addressing the lack of food shopping facilites downtown. If only they can get some people to throw fish around, the tourists will eat it up.

By the way, the American foodie renaissance began in the Bay Area.

8.

To Anonymous at #6:

"#1 this is on the west side, not the FDR (but neat if weird idea for the FDR). "

No, it is on the "east" side. You're thinking of a different building that is on the west side near Battery Park. This is both on the FDR and on the "east" side (more like south east tip).
http://maps.google.com/?ll=40.700967,-74.011679&spn=0.003087,0.00501&t=k

The following is the building you're thinking of near the Ellis Island crowds:
http://maps.google.com/?t=k&ll=40.704412,-74.017693&spn=0.003087,0.00501&t=k

In any case, this place is horrendously situated as one can see from the first Google map link.

They'd really have to work on access for this to work out. The FDR exit is directly in front of it and the paths to the Staten Island Ferry terminal to the south and to the South Street Seaport to the north are narrow and congested with people _now_. There's no adjacent parking and I don't believe there's a bus stop there. The closest subway stop, I believe, is South Ferry, and that's a little bit of a walk.

I would think that improving the Seaport would be a higher priority than turning a relatively remote area into a destination.

Of course, Staten Islanders will probably love it since it's so close to the ferry.

9.

A high-priced foodie megastore cannot survive on Saturday traffic. I was in this area just last Friday afternoon--a lovely, warm afternoon--and the whole area was a ghost town. The building is nice, and I guess this is a start. I wouldn't invest in it though.

10.

To Anonymous at #6:

"#1 this is on the west side, not the FDR (but neat if weird idea for the FDR). "

No, it is on the "east" side. You're thinking of a different building that is on the west side near Battery Park. This is both on the FDR and on the "east" side (more like south east tip).

Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/e3c46

The following is the building you're thinking of near the Ellis Island crowds:

Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/bosfp

In any case, this place is horrendously situated as one can see from the first Google map link.

They'd really have to work on access for this to work out. The FDR exit is directly in front of it and the paths to the Staten Island Ferry terminal to the south and to the South Street Seaport to the north are narrow and congested with people _now_. There's no adjacent parking and I don't believe there's a bus stop there. The closest subway stop, I believe, is South Ferry, and that's a little bit of a walk.

I would think that improving the Seaport would be a higher priority than turning a relatively remote area into a destination.

And the WTC site will have it's own facilities once it's up. Assuming they overcome the access issues, once the WTC is up and with the Seaport to the north, this place is going to exist in a vaccuum and almost completely ignored.

Of course, Staten Islanders will probably love it since it's so close to the ferry.

11.

#4 Anon - you're confusing this with something else; its nowhere near the ferry to Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty. Base of Manhattan, neither east nor west.

I have only seen this building when taking a late night cab home from work - it's right were you do that U turn to hop on the FDR from Water St (right fm Water, 1 block, right on service road, 1 block, U turn). Could someone explain to me how you get over there? Are they going to build a pedestrian bridge?

12.

Oops, #4 Anon, not #6.

13.

I'm originally from San Francisco, I currently live in the Financial District, and this proposal really does remind me a lot of what they did to the Ferry Building in SF. http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/

It's popular with the locals, and luckily it's something that the tourists haven't really discovered.

It think this model has a chance of working at the Battery Maritime Building as well. Very cool building, good location despite the hysteria about it being on the wrong side of the FDR.

14.

How about a wedding hall/conference center or something to that effect?

15.

No #4, this is on the East Side, right on the FDR, next to South Ferry. I drove passed this other day, and it's near the underpass that connects to the west side.

Since there are plans to develop the East side into an esplanade, I think I'll be taking my bike ride there more often now.

The building really looked great compared to just 1 year ago.

16.

Terrible usage for this building...

Isolated, inaccessible location will attract as many shoppers as the Seaport Mall does....hardly any....

With ideas like this and Crains NY reporting that the City netted only 43,000 jobs in 2004 and 2005 combined ("a performance that lags the nation's and is less robust than has been seen in previous recoveries") it is way past time for NYC Economic Development President Andy Alper to step down.....

17.

Unclear what NYC Economic Development President can really accomplish. Basically he rearranges chairs on the deck of the Titanic. They throw some tax money at retaining big corporations in the City (like the NY Times and Conde Naste which I guess were threatening to move to Mexico???) but he can do little to prevent the continued collapse of the middle class in this City. Instead of wasting tax dollars on big projects (i.e. money for the politically connected) like the Jets Stadium and Ratner's Plans, the City would be better off with a tax cut.

Job growth comes from small businesses not mature corporations, and the best way to support small businesses would be to cut taxes across the Board. Instead Bloomberg punishes small businesses by treating ticketing as a "profit center" his words not mine. As the real estate bubble causes more lower end office space to be turned into condos further raising costs for small businesses, things will be bleak for the NYC economy for the duration.

18.

Do people really think restaurants in a beautiful building right on the water wouldn't do well?

More and more people are living in the financial district. They would come.

I also think people would travel. I know this has been mentioned before, but the ferry building in sf is out of the way too, and it's packed.

19.

The CW about this site being isolated is screwy. If you approach it from Battery Park, which it's about a block away from, you don't have to cross the FDR. There's also a crosswalk practically right in front of the thing.

20.

The South Street Seaport was a terrific place when it opened in 1983. I remember having lunch with friends during opening week and the place was packed with as sophisticated a crowd as you could ask for. The food halls were wonderful, I used to go every day for lunch. There was a little stand that had the most scrumptious cupcakes. You could also get fish and chips, wonderful sausages, great pizza (for then) and burgers. The seafood restaurants were also good. I don't agree it was the "tourists" who killed it, on the contrary it was the massive layoffs on Wall St. at the end of 80's that signalled its decline. And as new more upscale restaurants opened uptown, it became declasse to even mention the Seaport. I don't know why any other places would not share the same fate if they haven't been able to revive the Seaport itself.

21.

I think Jon makes a good point about the Seaport's decline as a destination. Additionally, it doesn't provide anything that the FD has a dearth of: decent bars that are open late on weekends, restaurants that aren't geared primarily for business lunches/dinners, and full service supermarkets.

Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic, but when I read this article, I got the impression that the city was going to develop the Battery Maritime building in a way that would help cure some of the abovementioned deficiencies.

I certianly hope it won't be a recreation of the Seaport; however, with the spruced up Sciami developments around Front Street, maybe there's hope for the Seaport yet.