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MARCH 2012 THE TRIBECA TRIB
Can Downtown Boathouse Return to Pier? BY JESSICA TERRELL
The Downtown Boathouse, the city’s largest free kayaking organization, has come a long way from its humble beginnings at Tribeca’s once-crumbling Pier 26. Exiled since the pier closed for rebuilding in 2005, the Boathouse helps 30,000 people a year paddle out on the Hudson from three mid-and uptown locations. Yet the thought of coming home has always been on the minds of Boathouse volunteers. Now they are setting out to make a case that the Boathouse still belongs Downtown. This summer, the Hudson River Park Trust, which operates the five-mile-long stretch of river park, is expected to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for the operator of the new boathouse, now under construction and anticipated to open in spring 2013. But the Downtown Boathouse leaders now worry that they will be priced out of the new, fancier facilities that will replace the former produce warehouse they previously occupied. “The Pier 26 boathouse is still the most popular boathouse that has ever been in Manhattan,” Graeme Birchall, the boathouse’s secretary, told Community Board 1’s Waterfront Committee last month. “No other boathouse has ever proved as popular.” “Depending on how they built the boathouse and operate it, it may be far
HUDSON RIVER PARK TRUST
Above: Rendering of the building that will house a boathouse and restaurant. It is expected to be completed in spring, 2013. Right: The boathouse and restaurant building, now under construction, on Pier 26.
above our total income,” Birchall added. “We can’t make a commitment at this point that we will cover all the operating costs.” The boathouse has a annual budget of just $30,000, nearly all of which comes from small public donations. There is no charge for kayaking at any of the organization’s three Hudson River locations. There are no corporate or private sponsors and no suggested donation for the services. The nonprofit boathouse is run by a large cadre of volunteers. “We do a lot of dumpster diving,” Birchall said. “When Tribeca converted
from industrial to condos we picked up a lot of good stuff.” Interest in the boathouses and nonmotorized activities on the Hudson has increased in the last few years, and the purpose of the proposal request is to give all groups—both for-profit and nonprofits—a chance to apply, said a spokeswoman for the Hudson River Park Trust. Birchall said the Downtown Boathouse intends to apply for the lease, but concedes that it cannot afford to pay rent or high utilities costs. And there are other potential problems. The docks, he said, are not built for the kind of high traffic
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that the Downtown Boathouse expects. Waterfront Committee Chair Bob Townley lauded the Downtown Boathouse as an almost “utopian model” of what a community organization could be. But said it would not be right for the committee to support one group’s request to run the boathouse over another. Nicole Dooskin, the Trust’s assistant vice president for planning and real estate, who also attended the committee meeting, said she would be speaking with the current tenants of the boathouses while working on the RFP, but could not say when it would be issued. CARL GLASSMAN