Billionaire Barry Diller has yanked a $100 million plan to transform a rotting Hudson River pier off W. 13th Street into a 2.7-acre park with grassy fields and a 700-person amphitheater, following a series of lawsuits.
In an email to supporters of the project, the media mogul cited “huge escalating costs” of the suits, that would inevitably continue over the three years of the building process, as deciding factors in pulling the plug.
Diller and his fashion designer wife, Diane von Furstenberg, first pledged to donate the money in 2014. Their announcement was quickly met with the first of several lawsuits by activists from the City Club arguing that construction would wipe out local marine life.
It was later revealed that another billionaire, real estate titan Douglas Durst, was leading the opposition to the park, dubbed “Diller Island,” citing lack of public input.
“It was just not meant to be because of the secretiveness of the process and the whole sense that they were going to do it come hell or high water,” said attorney Richard Emery, who represents the opponents.
Still Emery said he was surprised by Diller’s move because they were “close to a settlement.”
Diller emailed supporters that he “couldn’t in good faith agree to a settlement agreement as I felt we had done nothing wrong.”
“To give victory to these people was in itself wrong,” he added.
Madelyn Wils, president of the Hudson River Park Trust that was overseeing the project, argued that there was public support for Diller Island.
“We are deeply saddened by this news– not simply because this would’ve been one of the world’s greatest piers, but because this was a project the community so resoundingly wanted, and that millions would one day enjoy,” Wils said in a statement.