West Village Residents in 'Conundrum' Over St. John's Terminal Project

WEST VILLAGE, NY — West Village residents are getting a massive development in Hudson Square in place of the ugly St. John's Terminal, but many are torn about it.

On one hand, many West Village residents are parents whose children play soccer or other team sports on Pier 40, so they want the developer's money to go to into the park.

On the other hand, the $100 million sale of the air rights, approved by the City Planning Commission on Monday, now allows the developers, Atlas Capital Group and Westbrook Partners, to build a massive project that many in the community think will be too big and too busy.

"It's a real conundrum, there's no easy answer on this," Dick Blodgett, who's lived a few blocks away from the pier for 48 years and goes running by it every day, told Patch. "Nobody loves the building that's there now, it's pretty ugly, and most people agree that Pier 40 needs money. Yet the project is massive. In the late afternoon, the traffic is horrific there because of the Holland Tunnel, and this will just add to that."

But Blodgett said the community is resigned to it because there's too much money behind it and it has too much support from the mayor's office to be stopped.

"Certainly the de Blasio administration is totally behind it, and it's hard to fight that," he said.

The project includes a 2 million-square-foot complex with retail, condos, 30 percent affordable housing and possibly a hotel. The Hudson River Park Trust said it will use the developer's money to make long-needed repairs to Pier 40.

The developers made substantial alterations to the plan after community activists protested at a City Planning Commission hearing in August. Those changes included the removal of much of the "big-box" retail plans, nixing a plan to build an elevated park over West Houston Street, and adding a 10,000-square-foot indoor recreation space that'll be open to the public for 50 percent of the time.

Community members, like Blodgett, have told Patch they are extremely concerned there won't be enough parking, and the increased traffic of out-of-towners will be a mess.

The next step in the project's approval process is a City Council hearing. Council Member Corey Johnson, who represents the neighborhood, said in a statement Monday he would push for a conversation about how to avoid traffic problems. He said he will also push for landmark protections for the South Village to avoid overdevelopment in that section of the community.

"As it comes before the City Council, I will continue to push for several key components like landmark protections for the South Village, additional capital funding for Pier 40 and new traffic mitigation measures and pedestrian improvements," Johnson said.

The City Council hearing has yet to be scheduled.

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