BPCA Plans for Wagner Restaurant Reflect Community Priorities
The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) has issued a “request for proposals” (RFP) from prospective restaurant operators who wish to rent space in the future Wagner Park Pavilion. The RFP is a follow-up to an earlier milestone in this process, a “request for expressions of interest” (RFEI), which the BPCA released last October. Both steps are required for government agencies under New York State law.
The RFP notes that Wagner Park—which was demolished in 2023 to facilitate rebuilding at a higher elevation, as part of the BPCA’s response to climate change—is slated to reopen in 2025. (The budget for the Wagner Park project is $221 million.)
The solicitation invites restaurant operators to bid for a ten-year lease on a facility that will contain over 5,000 square feet of kitchen and dining space, with seating for approximately 80 customers.
The RFP also advises bidders of several priorities identified by the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1). Among these are “price points that are aligned with and responsive to a diverse clientele” and “compatibility with the residential nature of the adjacent neighborhood, and the need to mitigate significant noise or odors.” CB1 has also articulated a desire for “high-quality, healthy food options (preferably throughout the day),” and “operating hours that are sensitive to the times of active park use and compatible with the neighborhood’s character.” CB1 is also pushing for carbon-reduction and energy-saving targets.
The RFP differs from last October’s RFEI in that the earlier solicitation emphasized the BPCA’s desire for the new Wagner Park Pavilion to achieve zero-energy certification by the International Living Future Institute. This is a compliance standard that seeks to reverse the effects of climate change by verifying that buildings use “energy from the sun, wind or earth to produce net annual energy demand,” and that they are “energy-efficient, combustion-free, and powered by renewals, thus fully offsetting their carbon impacts.” The RFP makes no mention of this goal.