South Battery Park City Resiliency

Declared complete by the BPCA, September 24, 2026 Battery Park City Authority Museum of Jewish Heritage, Wagner Park, Pier A Plaza

A continuous line of flood protection from the Museum of Jewish Heritage through Wagner Park and Pier A Plaza to the northern edge of The Battery. Wagner Park was demolished and rebuilt roughly ten feet higher over a buried floodwall, with flip-up gates at Pier A Plaza rated for the 100-year storm.

$221M
first public estimate, 2021
$303M
reported cost, Jun 2026, +37%
2024
completion promised at announcement
Sep 24, 2026
actual completion, 2 years late

Wagner Park, then and now

The park the project demolished, and the park it rebuilt over a buried floodwall, in its first week back.

Wagner Park from high above in June 2015: the old brick pavilion and its lawn at the water's edge, mature trees along the shore, the stepped Museum of Jewish Heritage, and Battery Park City's apartment blocks in the foreground
Wagner Park from above, June 2015: the old pavilion, the lawn and the mature trees the rebuild replaced.
The rebuilt Wagner Park lawn under a grey sky, the new rust-red arched pavilion behind orange and white barriers and a Pardon Our Appearance sign, the Museum of Jewish Heritage at left and One World Trade Center beyond
The rebuilt park on August 1, 2025, three days after it reopened in part, its pavilion still behind barriers.

The budget over time

0$100M$200M$300M$400M2021202220232024202520262027today2021: $221M · Budget as announced in 2021-22; the city's LMCR page still showed this figure in October 2026Dec 2024: $296M · Widely reported from late 2024, and the figure at Wagner Park's reopeningJun 2026: $303M · BPCA board update: $296.1M budget plus a reported $6.7M overage, including proposed settlements and acceleration costs$221M$303M0$100M$200M$300M$400M2021202220232024202520262027today2021: $221M · Budget as announced in 2021-22; the city's LMCR page still showed this figure in October 2026Dec 2024: $296M · Widely reported from late 2024, and the figure at Wagner Park's reopeningJun 2026: $303M · BPCA board update: $296.1M budget plus a reported $6.7M overage, including proposed settlements and acceleration costs$221M$303M0$100M$200M$300M$400M202220242026today2021: $221M · Budget as announced in 2021-22; the city's LMCR page still showed this figure in October 2026Dec 2024: $296M · Widely reported from late 2024, and the figure at Wagner Park's reopeningJun 2026: $303M · BPCA board update: $296.1M budget plus a reported $6.7M overage, including proposed settlements and acceleration costs$221M$303M

Each point is a public statement of the project's estimated cost, from the agency or from official documents and press coverage of them.

View this data as a table
DateEstimateContextSource
2021 $221,000,000 Budget as announced in 2021-22; the city's LMCR page still showed this figure in October 2026 nyc.gov
Dec 2024 $296,000,000 Widely reported from late 2024, and the figure at Wagner Park's reopening newyorkyimby.com
Jun 2026 $302,772,000 BPCA board update: $296.1M budget plus a reported $6.7M overage, including proposed settlements and acceleration costs media.bpca.ny.gov

The schedule

202220232024202520262027AnnouncedActualAnnounced: 2022 to 202420222024Actual: Sep 2022 to Sep 24, 2026Sep 2022Sep 24, 2026Promised at announcementlate byPark reopensPark reopens promised: 2024Park reopens delivered: Jul 29, 2025, about 1 years late+1 yrPavilion rooftopPavilion rooftop promised: 2024Pavilion rooftop delivered: Nov 10, 2025, about 1.5 years late+1.5 yrsPier A accessPier A access promised: Jun 2024Pier A access delivered: Jun 12, 2026, about 2 years late+2 yrsRestaurantRestaurant promised: 2024Restaurant: not delivered as of 2026, about 2.5 years past the promise+2.5 yrs, openBike laneBike lane promised: 2024Bike lane delivered: Sep 24, 2026, about 2 years late+2 yrs202220232024202520262027AnnouncedActualAnnounced: 2022 to 202420222024Actual: Sep 2022 to Sep 24, 2026Sep 2022Sep 24, 2026Promised at announcementlate byPark reopensPark reopens promised: 2024Park reopens delivered: Jul 29, 2025, about 1 years late+1 yrPavilion rooftopPavilion rooftop promised: 2024Pavilion rooftop delivered: Nov 10, 2025, about 1.5 years late+1.5 yrsPier A accessPier A access promised: Jun 2024Pier A access delivered: Jun 12, 2026, about 2 years late+2 yrsRestaurantRestaurant promised: 2024Restaurant: not delivered as of 2026, about 2.5 years past the promise+2.5 yrs, openBike laneBike lane promised: 2024Bike lane delivered: Sep 24, 2026, about 2 years late+2 yrs202220242026Announced 2022 to 2024Announced: 2022 to 2024Actual Sep 2022 to Sep 24, 2026Actual: Sep 2022 to Sep 24, 2026Promised at announcementlate byPark reopens+1 yrPark reopens promised: 2024Park reopens delivered: Jul 29, 2025, about 1 years latePavilion rooftop+1.5 yrsPavilion rooftop promised: 2024Pavilion rooftop delivered: Nov 10, 2025, about 1.5 years latePier A access+2 yrsPier A access promised: Jun 2024Pier A access delivered: Jun 12, 2026, about 2 years lateRestaurant+2.5 yrs, openRestaurant promised: 2024Restaurant: not delivered as of 2026, about 2.5 years past the promiseBike lane+2 yrsBike lane promised: 2024Bike lane delivered: Sep 24, 2026, about 2 years late

The construction window announced when the project was unveiled, against what actually happened. Below the bars, the features the project promised, each with the date promised at announcement and the date it actually arrived, if it has.

Promised versus delivered

Rendering of a sunlit Wagner Park lawn under full-grown shade trees, a child cartwheeling and people picnicking and strolling across the grass
The lawn as the BPCA presented it to Community Board 1 on September 20, 2022: a rendering from the agency's own deck.

What was promised

  • A two-year construction period starting summer 2022, with the park back in service in 2024
  • Access closed to Pier A Plaza and portions of The Battery along Battery Place for about 20 months, per the July 2022 construction staging presentation to CB1
  • Construction planned around a single 7 AM to 3 PM weekday shift, occasionally extended to 6 PM for critical tasks, with weekend or night work only occasionally required, per the FEIS
  • Total cost of $221M, funded by BPCA bond proceeds
  • Wagner Park rebuilt with expansive lawns and gardens, public restrooms, dining, and access for all
  • After community pressure, an August 2022 redesign promised 74 percent more green space than the first redesign proposal
  • A new pavilion with a restaurant, classroom, public restrooms, and a publicly accessible rooftop
  • Flood protection that removes the area from the FEMA flood zone
Curved timber benches stepping down from Wagner Park's raised lawn beside its granite edge wall, people on the grass and Pier A's clock tower beyond under a clear sky
What was built: the raised lawn and its granite edge, August 2025.

What happened

  • changedWagner Park reopened July 29, 2025, about a year past the original 2024 promise. The BPCA notice that closed the park on November 16, 2022 said the work would take roughly two years; the reopening came two years and eight months later
  • changedPier A Plaza and the north edge of The Battery were fenced on October 16, 2023 for work the BPCA said would continue through summer 2025. Lower Pier A Plaza reopened with connections to Wagner Park and Battery Park by June 12, 2026, about 32 months after fencing and a year past that estimate, with Battery Place work continuing through at least September 11, 2026, the end of the BPCA's last two-week notification, before the BPCA declared the project complete on September 24, 2026
  • changedWork hours grew far past the FEIS's single-shift assumption: regular Saturday work from December 2024, notification headers reading 7 AM to 6 PM including weekends from August 2025, double shifts to 11 PM from February 2026, Sunday hours from spring 2026, and overnight 9 PM to 5 AM stretches in spring 2025 and June 2026. The last notification to state the 11 PM shift covered June 26 to July 10, 2026; the four that followed, the last covering through September 11, list 7 AM to 6 PM including weekends
  • changedCost rose from $221M to $296.1M, and the BPCA's June 2026 board update added a $6.7M overage, bringing the anticipated total to about $302.8M, 37 percent over the announced figure. The BPCA had published no final cost when it declared the project complete in September 2026: its completion release states no cost, and its last budget statement remains the June 3 update
  • changedThe rebuilt lawns hold roughly 10 percent less green space than the pre-demolition park, and its 139 new trees are 48 fewer than the old park had
  • changedThe pavilion opened in phases, none of it ready at the July 2025 reopening: restrooms fall 2025, the rooftop with its observation deck on November 10, 2025, the classroom in early 2026
  • changedThe restaurant had not been announced as open as of October 2026. The first operator RFP drew zero responses; a relaunched RFP produced an operator, reported in June 2025 and named by the BPCA that September as Jabber Dorado Enterprises, with fit-out estimated at six to nine months from November 2025 and an opening in summer 2026. The BPCA repeated summer 2026 at the November 2025 rooftop unveiling and on March 24, 2026; its March 4 board update scheduled turnover of the space for mid March, and its June 3 update lists the restaurant as turned over, without a date. Summer 2026 passed with no opening announced, and the BPCA's September 24 completion release does not mention the restaurant. Gigino, the restaurant the demolition displaced, served its last meal September 5, 2022
  • changedThe viewing platform over the Pier A inlet, which the BPCA's December 2025 board update scheduled for mid December 2025, had been completed and opened to the public by January 28, 2026, according to that day's board minutes, posted in September. Veneer work around the columns limited access to the inlet area into July 2026, and the BPCA's September 24 completion release lists modifications to the inlet at Pier A among the finished components
  • keptThe buried floodwall, flip-up gates at Pier A Plaza, tide-gate chamber, and 63,000-gallon stormwater cistern were built
  • keptPublic artworks by Tony Cragg and Louise Bourgeois returned to the park
  • changedThe Pier A Plaza and Battery segment, which BPCA board updates targeted for late May 2026 (December and March) and then for July 4, 2026 (June 3), was still 85 percent complete on July 27, when the BPCA told Community Board 1 it would be finished in fall 2026. The BPCA declared the project complete on September 24, 2026
  • pendingWhether the neighborhood leaves the FEMA flood zone is still open: the BPCA's monthly monitoring reports describe the purpose of the flood alignment as meeting 'the requirements for FEMA accreditation', and no document reviewed for this page says FEMA has accredited the system or changed the flood maps

Friction and open questions

Disputes, community objections, and unresolved issues on the public record.

  • Residents fought the demolition of the functioning, celebrated 1996 park, calling it a plan to destroy a green space in order to save it. A neighborhood association lawsuit paused work in December 2022; a court denied the injunction in February 2023 and demolition proceeded.
    Battery Park City Neighborhood Association v. BPCA, case record, Feb 2023
  • Post-reopening criticism has centered on less shade, more hardscape, a smaller lawn, and the loss of the old waterside dining terrace.
    Wagner Park has reopened, Tribeca Citizen, Jul 2025
  • The city's official LMCR page still displayed the stale $221M figure on October 23, 2026, a month after the BPCA declared the project complete, five years and about $80M out of date; amNewYork and 6sqft repeated $221M in their coverage of the completion.
    Battery Park City Resilience Projects, city LMCR page with stale figures
  • The BPCA's completion estimates for the final stretch of work read as a moving target: seven consecutive two-week notifications, March 6 through May 29, 2026, each said the double-shift work at Pier A Plaza and Battery Place would continue approximately 10 more weeks. The June 12 notice said approximately 4 more weeks; the June 26 notice said approximately 9 more weeks. No notification after June 26 repeated an estimate: the four that followed, the last covering through September 11, listed work from 7 AM to 6 PM including weekends and said nothing about the extra shift or how many weeks remained. The BPCA declared the project complete on September 24.
    SBPCR two-week construction notification, June 26 to July 10, 2026, Jun 2026
  • The restaurant has no announced opening date as of October 2026. The BPCA's last dated target was summer 2026, first given in a September 2025 presentation to Community Board 1, repeated on November 10, 2025, and restated on March 24, 2026 ('a restaurant will open in the Pavilion this summer'). Its September 24, 2026 completion release names the rooftop and the classroom as earlier milestones and does not mention the restaurant. An opening in 2027 would put the neighborhood's wait at five years since Gigino closed for the demolition in September 2022.
    BPCA release unveiling The Classroom, March 24, 2026: a restaurant will open in the Pavilion this summer, Mar 2026
  • The completion came with open money questions. On June 3, 2026 the BPCA board approved a $3.1M increase to the Wagner Park site-work contract 'for the settlement of all impact and delay-related claims', and its September 16 board packet asked the members to add $3.6M to the Pier A Plaza contract, from $81,593,000 to $85,193,000, and to extend its term by 12 months, to October 30, 2027. The September 16 minutes are not yet posted, and the BPCA has not said how these sums relate to the reported $6.7M overage.
    BPCA board packet, September 16, 2026: proposed $3.6M increase and 12-month extension for the Pier A Plaza contract, Sep 2026
Pier A seen from the water, its white clock tower and long pier shed on timber piles, orange construction barriers on the plaza at right and Lower Manhattan's towers behind
Pier A from the harbor, July 2013, during the renovation that reopened it in 2014.

Sources