What was promised What got built
Battery Park Community Activism is an independent, resident-run ledger of the flood-wall construction remaking Battery Park City and The Battery: every budget, date and closure held against what was delivered.
See the projectsThe estimates grew
$1.19B
Growth between each project's first public estimate and its current one, across the 5 projects old enough to have both, as of Oct 2026.
It would build the Battery Playscape, this program's on-budget playground, 64 more times. Every figure is sourced on its project page.
Drawn, then built
In 2022 the BPCA showed Community Board 1 a sunlit lawn full of people; in the week Wagner Park reopened in part, nearly three years later, its pavilion stood behind barriers.
Five projects, one ledger
First public cost estimate for each project next to the latest one. Estimates change for real reasons, including scope changes and inflation. The sources behind every figure are on each project page.
$2.23B
Current estimated cost of the 5 projects tracked here, nearly all of it public money
+114%
Cost growth on the 5 projects old enough to have both a first and a current estimate
10 years
Combined schedule slip so far, measured against the completion dates announced at launch
| 2019 | The Battery Coastal Resilience | $165M to $200M | +2.5 yrs behind schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | BPC Ball Fields Interim Flood Barriers | $4.5M to $7M | +1 yr behind schedule |
| 2020 | Battery Playscape | $18M to $18M | +1 yr behind schedule |
| 2021 | South Battery Park City Resiliency | $221M to $303M | +2 yrs behind schedule |
| 2021 | North/West Battery Park City Resiliency | $631M to $1.7B | +3.5 yrs behind schedule |
Figures as of Oct 2026. Hover any bar for the exact figure, or open a project for the full budget history and sources. Click a bar to open that project.
The schedule, by project
Each project's announced construction window against its current one; the red is the slip.
Who pays
Battery Park City's projects are not paid for out of the city or state budget. The BPCA borrows against money its residents and businesses already pay, and as the estimates grew, so did its borrowing cap.
Who pays. The BPCA borrows against the ground rent and payments in lieu of taxes that Battery Park City's residents and businesses already pay, money that would otherwise flow to the city's general fund. As costs grew, Albany raised the authority's borrowing cap from $500M to $1.5B in 2023, then to $2.5B in 2024, and the BPCA sold $658M in bonds in December 2025 with more issuances planned annually until the North/West project is done. The Battery's wharf is different: it is city capital money through NYCEDC and NYC Parks.
What it buys. Mostly buried flood protection: Wagner Park rebuilt roughly ten feet higher over a buried floodwall, flip-up gates at Pier A Plaza, The Battery's wharf raised about five feet, and about 1.5 miles of North/West floodwalls, tide gates and a deployable West Street crossing. The BPCA's own benefit-cost analysis argues the program is worth it, projecting $3.5B in benefits against $1.6B in present-value costs. That case gets stronger or weaker with every overrun, which is why this ledger exists.
Where. From high ground in Tribeca down the Esplanade and West Street to South Cove, then through Wagner Park and Pier A Plaza to The Battery's waterfront: one stretch of a roughly 3.5-mile protective alignment around Lower Manhattan.
What you can do. The BPCA board, Community Board 1 and the construction committee all take public comment, and written comments and records requests create a paper trail that officials must answer to. Where and when to show up.
The projects
| South Battery Park City Resiliency | Declared complete by the BPCA, September 24, 2026 | $303M | +37% over the first estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| North/West Battery Park City Resiliency | Early construction, to late 2030 | $1.7B | +169% over the first estimate |
| The Battery Coastal Resilience | Phase 1 open, Phase 2 to 2027 | $200M | +21% over the first estimate |
| BPC Ball Fields Interim Flood Barriers | Complete, interim protection | $7M | +56% over the first estimate |
| Battery Playscape | Complete, opened 2021 | $18M | on budget |
The landfill, June 1974
The biggest jump
North/West's public estimate grew from $631M in 2021 to $1.7B in Nov 2025, up 169%, before major construction began. Every step in between was a public statement: $1B in Jun 2023, $1.5B in Jun 2024, $1.6B in Oct 2025. The full history and its sources are on the project page.
$631M
$1.7B
At Albany Street
The North/West project at Albany Street: the Upper Room two days after its demolition, and the esplanade gated six months later.
Beyond the ledger
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11 PM
Noise and construction hours
The environmental review assumed one shift ending at 3 PM; from February 2026 the BPCA's own notifications describe a double shift to 11 PM.
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32 months
Closures and access
Each closure's announced length against what happened, from Wagner Park, reopened only in part, to the esplanade, building by building.
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500
Trees and green space
Lawns and trees in the agencies' own counts, among them the roughly 500 mature trees the BPCA expects North/West to remove, cut from spring 2026 on, against 435 in its review.
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6 years
The dark windows ledger
Pier A, the Wagner Hotel and the West Thames grocery have each stood dark six years or more; the page asks what the construction years mean for them.
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July 2026
Business and street life
In July 2026 the path along the west side of Brookfield Place closed; the page follows the rink, the waterfront's dining rooms and the marina.
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28 months
Schools and kids
Five schools sit along the alignment while the children's spaces close in turn; Rockefeller Park is next, scheduled for 28 months of work from spring 2028.
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10 days
The Upper Room
Battery Park City's first public artwork stood 39 years at Albany Street; ten days after its demolition was reported imminent, it was rubble.
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4 summers
The Wagner Park pavilion
The pavilion was promised with a restaurant, a classroom, restrooms and a public rooftop; the file follows each one since Gigino closed in 2022.
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455
Documents
The agencies' own project documents are collected here as they stood when captured, so every figure on this site can be checked.
Latest updates
Every change to the numbers on this site is logged, with the document or article that prompted it.
All updates, or subscribe by RSS.
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Oct 24, 2026
Corrections: night work in the notices since 2023, and two things seen on the ground
A full re-reading of all 84 two-week notifications for the South BPC project, done for an analysis of how often they set an end they later moved, found that our hours chart undercounted night work: twenty notifications schedule work between 9 PM and 5 AM, the first on October 27, 2023, where our data had flagged seven, and four notices from August and September 2023 that do state hours were marked as not stating them. The chart and the noise page are corrected. The same reading found that the February 20, 2026 notice already gave the evening shift an estimate, a range of 8 to 10 weeks, before the seven consecutive notices that said approximately 10 more weeks. Two resident observations join the record: Pier A Plaza's fencing came down on October 18, 2026, three and a half weeks after the BPCA declared the project complete, with a few small areas still blocked, and Mezze on the River has closed, as it announced it would. The analysis, with its method and counts, is in the site's library and will inform a new section. Source
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Oct 23, 2026
October refresh: South BPC declared complete, North/West dates restated, and our corrections
The BPCA declared South BPC complete on September 24 but has published no final cost, and a September 16 board packet asked to add $3.6M to the Pier A Plaza contract; the pavilion restaurant still has no opening date. For North/West, the BPCA restated the Gateway Plaza esplanade starts as summer and fall 2026 and moved three tide gates to early 2027, and its own documents give completion as late 2030 or 2031. Corrections to our pages: the Pier A inlet platform had opened by January; the lawsuit was dismissed in late June; the 500 tree removals are an estimate, still under way; The Battery's first phase finished in March and its screening facility is in service; the Playscape opened about nine months late; and the ball fields hand-off falls within the barrier's stated life. New data: 2026 crashes through May and an 11 percent enrollment drop at P.S./I.S. 276. The archive adds 16 documents. Source
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Oct 23, 2026
The site, redesigned: bigger type, real pictures, and find your building
Every number on this site is the same; the way it is set has changed. Pages now open on the one figure that matters, in the chart's two inks: blue for what was promised, orange for what happened, red where the gap is a loss. Thirty-eight dated, credited pictures from the open collections join the record, among them the BPCA's own 2022 rendering of Wagner Park's lawn beside a photograph of the same lawn in August 2025, the 1974 landfill the neighborhood stands on, the Battery Park Underpass the morning after Sandy, and a resident's photographs of the Upper Room's demolition and the esplanade's gates in 2026. On the closures page you can now pick your building and read exactly which esplanade segment it fronts, when the agency says the work starts, how long it says it will take, and whether a construction agreement exists. The data behind every page is unchanged; the next data refresh will note what has moved since July. Source