Meatpacking's Gansevoort St Plaza Complete After Years Of Delays

MEATPACKING DISTRICT, NY — A $28 million revamp of the Gansevoort Street Plaza is complete — two years after it was supposed to be done.

The new area brings more than 28,000 square feet of public space to the westside neighborhood.

Back in 2015, it was expected to take two years to complete.

But delays roiled the project, led by the Department of Design and Construction, and the completion date was pushed back to fall 2018 and then to spring this year.

City officials and politicians finally cut the ribbon Tuesday, celebrating its completion.

DDC said delays were due to interference with Con Edison's underground utilities, which needed to be relocated.

"Crews working for DDC could not proceed until Con Edison relocated its lines, which took several years longer than anticipated and is in fact still ongoing in areas north of 14th Street, where additional underground infrastructure work remains," DDC spokesperson Shoshana Khan said.

Con Edison spokesperson Mike Clendenin said "The project involved moving a great deal of underground infrastructure, including equipment that does not belong to Con Edison,” noting that moving utilities has to be coordinated with projects like this to schedule completion dates.

Costs added up too. The project's original construction was estimated at $18 million, which ballooned to $20 million, the DDC said. Another $8 million was required for designers and engineering services.

The plaza, located at Gansevoort Street and Ninth Avenue, was first conceived more than a decade ago as a traffic calming measure.

The historic, industrial area has turned into a trendy, bustling neighborhood near the High Line, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Chelsea Market.

The Meatpacking Business Improvement District, led by the recently appointed Jeffrey LeFrancois, will lead programming and maintenance at the plaza.

“After an intense seven years of planning and advocacy, we are thrilled to return the neighborhood to the people who live, work, and gather here," LeFrancois said. "While it's been a lengthy, and often disruptive, project we are grateful to our businesses and residents for bearing with us as we worked with city agencies throughout to complete the project."

He added it's a "moment of transformation" for the neighborhood.

The plaza features expanded sidewalks, preserved historic manhole covers, new street lighting and traffic signals, planters, and 30 new trees. There are nearly 250 chairs, 60 tables and 60 umbrellas as well.

A quarter-million cobblestones were laid — many of which were historic stones preserved and restored, speaking to the neighborhood's industrial past, DDC said.

"The City’s design and construction teams also went to great lengths to help preserve the historic nature of the neighborhood, re-using old cobblestones and granite slabs where possible, and bringing in new granite that matches the old stone in color and character," DDC Commissioner Lorraine Grillo said in a statement.

Remaining Con Edison work on the north side of the 14th Street and Ninth Avenue is expected to be complete by the end of August or early September, Con Edison rep Clendenin said.

“#GansevoortPlaza has evolved almost as much as the dynamic Meatpacking District over the past decade. NYC DOT could not be more excited about the stunning outcome of this historic reconstruction project which merges the past with the future." -DOT Mn Boro Cmsr Pincar #NYCPlazas pic.twitter.com/WLyZHj0PoA
— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT) August 6, 2019

We were happy to join our partners today to celebrate the completed Gansevoort Plaza as well as other vital infrastructure upgrades in the neighborhood. https://t.co/J0aVaec3sE
— NYC DDC (@NYCDDC) August 6, 2019