Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday announced plans to extend the High Line by 1,200 feet to the north and east, bringing the elevated walkway to within a block of the new Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station.
The L-shaped expansion would bump the High Line’s northeast terminus from 10th Avenue and 30th Street up to 31st Street between 9th and 10th Avenues, ending at a new mixed-use development called Manhattan West. The Hudson Yards-esque complex, which sits across 9th Avenue from the train hall, contains 6 million-square-feet of office space, 844 apartments, a Whole Foods, a Peloton-branded gym, and an ice rink run in partnership with the NHL. It also features a two-acre public plaza designed by James Corner Field Operations, the same landscape architecture firm that designed the High Line.
For Cuomo, who featured the High Line extension in his 2021 State of the State address on Monday, these three football fields' worth of added pathway in Midtown represents a win for New York's post-pandemic recovery.
"This will be the most ambitious redevelopment that New York City has seen in decades," Cuomo said in a statement. "The beautiful Moynihan Train Hall is open, the renovation of Penn Station and this High Line extension project begin this year. This connection is part of a district-wide redevelopment of the West Side that will jumpstart the private market in a post-COVID world."
A map of the proposed extension of the High Line
Costs for the expansion project, which are expected to hit $60 million, will be shared between New York state, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Friends of the High Line, and Brookfield Property Group, which owns Manhattan West. Cuomo's announcement did not specify when construction on the project is expected to begin, and it was not immediately clear what role city agencies would play in the approval process.
The High Line, which opened as a public park in 2009, has been criticized for spurring gentrification in the neighborhood. The wildly popular tourist attraction helped transform the stretch of Manhattan from the Meatpacking District up to Hudson Yards into a mecca of luxury condos and high-end amenities. It’s also been crucial to turning a former industrial area into a pedestrian haven, drawing up to 60,000 visitors a day. But since the start of the pandemic, the area has become something of a ghost town.
The New York Times reported that Hudson Yards’ real estate market is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, and overall rental availability in Manhattan increased by 70% last year. On the High Line itself, which closed last March but partially reopened in July, foot traffic has been slow to recover. 2020 saw around 1 million visitors, compared to 8 million in 2019.
Robert Hammond, the co-founder and executive director of the High Line, said he’s encouraged by one change: The last six months have seen an increased percentage of High Line visitors who are actually from the five boroughs.
"It’s great that tourists from all over the world come to the High Line, that’s an important part of New York City’s economy," Hammond said. "But the High Line was built by New Yorkers for New Yorkers."
By creating a new option for walking east-west — from Penn Station to the Hudson River — the hope is that this High Line expansion will serve commuters and office workers who don’t currently have a pleasant option for getting around the area by foot. (Ever walk to the Megabus stop by the Javits Center? It suuuuucks.)
"The good thing about office workers is they would be using it in our off time," Hammond said. "Our busiest times are during the middle of the day and on the weekend. Office workers would be using it early in the morning and in the evening."
Cuomo’s plan also calls for expanding the High Line northward, from 34th Street and the West Side Highway up to 38th Street and Pier 76. The governor recently pressured the NYPD to finally move its tow pound off the pier, where the addition of park space and commercial development are likely seen as crucial to the area’s recovery.
Hammond, the High Line’s executive director, added that while the west side of Manhattan won’t go back to what it was like before the luxury towers showed up, he’s encouraged by this investment in linking a train station to public outdoor space and pedestrian networks.
"For so long, we’ve invested public money for highways," Hammond said. "[But] the cities that are going to be successful, where people want to live, are great walking cities."
