BPCA Invites Restaurant Operators to Think Green about Wagner Pavilion
The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) has issued a “request for expressions of interest” (RFEI) for potential operators who may rent space in the soon-to-be-built Wagner Park pavilion, with an eye toward opening a restaurant there. An RFEI is a solicitation used by New York government agencies to gauge interest among possible vendors or suppliers in advance of a formal procurement process, known as a “request for proposals.”
In a story first reported by the New York Business Journal, the BPCA posted a 20-page RFEI to its website on October 4. This document notes that “the Pavilion will be a newly built structure overlooking the lawns and gardens within the renovated, environmentally sustainable Wagner Park,” which “will offer sweeping views of the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor through expansive floor-to-ceiling windows and from the adjacent first-floor terrace.” The description of the space notes that it will total slightly more than 5,800 square feet, which will have room indoors for 80 diners, along with another 18 people seated on the outdoor terrace.
The Authority urges prospective restaurant operators to include in their presentations “price points that are aligned with and responsive to a diverse clientele,” and to prioritize “a general desire for high-quality, healthy food options.” The BPCA also wants proposers to build their plans around “sustainability guidelines and objectives, and ‘green’ carbon-reduction and energy saving targets.”
In this context, the Authority directs possible tenants to incorporate provisions for equipment like electric induction cooktops (there will be no gas in the building), a tankless water heater, and Energy Star-rated appliances that meet Environmental Protection Agency standards for efficient power usage.
The Authority is also prioritizing zero-energy certification by the International Living Future Institute (IFLI), a compliance standard that seeks to reverse the effects 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. While the BPCA plans to take the lead on obtaining IFLI certification for the Wagner Park pavilion, it wants assurances that operations by a restaurant within the building will do nothing to impair this status.
The current budget for the Wagner Park project is $221 million, and the most recent timeline calls for the entire plan to be complete in the spring of 2025. (The original anticipated date of completion was July, 2024, based on a previous start date of summer, 2022, which was delayed by about nine months due to litigation and the pandemic.) Both the budget and the schedule are projections, and may be subject to further change.