Governor Kathy Hochul is moving ahead with a proposed expansion of the High Line that will soon bring the elevated park within a block of Moynihan Train Hall.
The envisioned plan will add a timber bridge to the park's east edge at 31st Street and 10th Avenue. It will extend half a block, before connecting to a second passage that funnels pedestrians north along Dyer Avenue and into an existing elevated plaza at Brookfield Properties’ Manhattan West development.
The extension was first floated by former Governor Andrew Cuomo as a link between the popular park and the new Moynihan Train Hall — part of his sprawling infrastructure and transit project that would ultimately remake West Midtown.
While the fate of much of that plan remains uncertain, Hochul indicated this week that her administration would move forward with the eastern High Line expansion. It is expected to be completed in spring of 2023. The announcement includes no mention of a northward extension of the High Line, which Cuomo initially proposed as a second phase of the expansion.
Cuomo's proposed extension of the High Line. Hochul has not discussed the second phase
The Empire State Development Corporation — the state's main development arm — will pay $20 million of the estimated $50 million price tag, a spokesperson for Hochul confirmed. The rest will be privately funded by Brookfield Properties and Friends of the High Line, with the Port Authority contributing the land.
Like much of Cuomo's developer-friendly plans for Midtown, the extension has attracted scrutiny. It will bring the High Line directly into the arms of Brookfield's new seven-million-square-foot mixed-use development, likely benefitting the developer substantially.
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In a statement, Brookfield Properties Executive Vice President Sabrina Kanner praised the "vibrant gateway connecting Moynihan Train Hall directly to the entirety of the High Line and the new West Side."
The state has also been accused of prioritizing the posh park, while ignoring critical safety and quality-of-life issues on the pedestrian-hostile streets below. The Port Authority has long used the area for construction staging and parking.
Lowell Kern, the head of Manhattan's Community Board 4, which initially opposed the expansion, said he had received written assurance from the Empire State Development that planters and architecture lighting would be installed on street level.
"We don't want to have the High Line up there and this dark and forbidding space below," he said. "We want the street level to be just as inviting as the High Line."
