East Midtown Greenway Set To Open In '2-3 Months,' Officials Say
UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — After four years, there is light at the end of the Esplanade.
The long anticipated $100 million project to extend the East River Esplanade is nearing completion and is expected to open in the dead of winter, according to officials from the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the city’s Parks Department.
When asked by Community Board 8 members at a meeting last week, EDC officials were steadfast to not committing to an official opening date just yet, only saying that they anticipate an opening within two to three months.
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“It could be earlier,” said NYC Parks project administrator Michael Bradley, “but we can’t promise it today.”
That means the project, which broke ground in 2019 and was already delayed a year by the pandemic, could blow past their last stated estimated opening date of December 2023, now just weeks away.
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But when it does open, Upper East Side and Sutton Place residents will have much to look forward to.
The 1.1 mile long extension to the East River Esplanade includes grade-separated pedestrian and bike paths, supplemented by ample benches, trees and garden plantings all suspended above the river.
Much of that work as been completed — what remains is the area underneath and adjacent to Andrew Haswell Green Park and the Alice Aycock Pavilion, which includes an extension to the park filled with stairs, seating, a garden and a new lawn, and a reconstruction of the ramp overpass at East 60th Street.
An ADA-accessible pedestrian bridge will also connect the park to the rest of the esplanade.
Underneath the structure where Andrew Haswell Green and the Alice Aycock Pavilion are located — formerly a Sanitation waste transfer station and, at one point, a heliport — new lights have been installed as well as eight benches close to the river, an idea first pitched by Community Board 8 members and accepted by Parks and EDC officials.
Community Board 8 Parks Committee co-chair Felice Farber said “this is an absolutely beautiful project.”
“I walked through there a couple of weeks ago — it’s amazing the transformation,” Farber said.
“We’re getting a really beautiful park and greenway and I think the community is going to love it,” said Community Board 8 Park Committee co-chair Judith Schneider, who many took a moment to credit with shepherding the long project.
“You deserve all the kudos,” said Board Member Rita Popper to Schneider. “It’s absolutely magnificent.”
“It was a big undertaking but I think it’s a real benefit to the city,” Schneider said, “the whole city will benefit from this.
Even when the current construction finishes, more work will be on the way — once the project can find about $38 million.
That’s how much it’s going to cost to enact any of the ideas Community Board 8 had for the space under Andrew Haswell Green Park, according to Bradley.
Those ideas pitched in 2018 included a bathroom or a cafe as well as a new ADA compliant ramp.
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