Intrepid Museum's Sweet Deal On West Side Should End, Board Says

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — A community board is pushing Hudson River Park to rewrite a lease that has allowed the Intrepid museum to dock its warships on Manhattan's West Side for decades while paying its hosts next to nothing for the privilege.

Since it was founded in 1982, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum has paid just $1 per year to dock its 27,000-ton aircraft carrier — plus a submarine, fighter jets and most recently, the space shuttle Enterprise — on Pier 86 at West 46th Street.

The city offered that low figure as a courtesy, calling the nonprofit museum a "valued cultural institution." By 1998, though, the lease had been thrust upon the Hudson River Park Trust, a fellow nonprofit that formed with the goal of creating a network of pier-based parks along the West Side.

In the ensuing years, the Intrepid grew to a behemoth: the museum raked in $34 million in revenue in 2018, and paid its president more than $585,000. A pre-pandemic study by the Hudson River Park Trust estimated that the Intrepid's fair market value rent would be about $190,000 annually.

Now, the museum's 30-year lease with the Hudson River Park Trust is ending, and both parties have come up with a new lease that keeps the $1 rent intact. But Community Board 4 believes the Intrepid owes far more — especially as Hudson River Park faces an uncertain financial future during the pandemic.

"It's really difficult ... for our backyard park to be shortchanged simply because another nonprofit is a tenant," board member Jeffrey LeFrancois said during a March 4 meeting.

In a letter Monday, the board called on the park and the Intrepid to come up with a different lease that would keep the $1 figure for three years, allowing the Intrepid to recover from the pandemic, before raising the rent closer to $190,000.

Like many museums, the Intrepid was hit hard by COVID-19, laying off workers, imposing pay cuts and shutting down for much of the winter. But the Park Trust has also suffered, projecting a revenue shortfall for the 2021-2022 fiscal year as businesses within Hudson River Park continue to lose out on customers.

"We want our park to be well-maintained and continue to be a fantastic backyard for the West Side," LeFrancois told Patch.

An Intrepid spokesperson defended the proposed lease, which also provides for free programming for neighbors and an expansion of the Pier 86 deck, which is open to the public.

"The Intrepid Museum respects the multiyear process that has resulted in a long-term lease with the Hudson River Park Trust," the spokesperson said, adding that it includes cost-avoidance measures worth millions of dollars.

A spokesperson for the Hudson River Park Trust said the community board's letter would be shared with the trust's board of directors ahead of the March 19 deadline for public comment on the new lease. The board will then discuss the lease at a March 25 meeting.