East Harlem Waterfront Park Moving Ahead, City Says

EAST HARLEM, NY — The city is moving ahead with plans to build a new waterfront park on the Harlem River in East Harlem, with construction set to begin next year, representatives told a community board this week.

The seven-acre park will be built between 125th and 132nd streets, complete with pedestrian and bicycle pathways, a rebuilt seawall, a playground, picnic and barbecue areas and public art. Until recently, the site served as a staging area for the Department of Transportation.

Construction will begin in early 2022 and will be complete by 2024 — later than the originally-announced date of 2023, representatives said during Thursday's Community Board 11 committee meeting.

In January 2018, the city first presented plans for the new park and got community feedback. Now, after the pandemic halted progress for six months in mid-2020, the city has resumed efforts to design the park and secure permits, according to a representative from the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

The new park will connect to the East River Esplanade, bringing the city closer to its goal of creating a continuous, 32-mile loop around the island of Manhattan.

Construction will require repairing the decaying marine structure that underlies the future park area, with plans calling for replacing or improving the existing platforms, sea walls and bulkheads.

The park will likely be raised by two feet above its current height to account for rising sea levels caused by climate change, according to Alda Chan, a planner at the Parks Department.

Public artworks will be selected by a committee composed of the Marcus Garvey Park Alliance, Taller Boricua, Schomburg Center, Harlem Arts Alliance, Starr Whitehouse and other groups. They have already narrowed artists down to a shortlist of four, all with neighborhood ties, with final selections later this month, the EDC representative said.

The city has received $227 million in funding for the new park. If it has money left over after construction, it will be used to improve existing stretches of the greenway between 132nd and 145th streets, and 145th and Swindler Cove.

Jessica Elliott, chair of CB11's environment and open space committee, said the new park couldn't come soon enough given the current state of disrepair along the East Harlem waterfront, which is often riddled with gaps and sinkholes.

“Every day, it seems, there’s new holes," she said.