The long-delayed renovation of New York’s oldest and most historic pier may, at last, be drawing to a close.

Later this month, architects will seek permission from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to finish exterior restoration work on the weathered 114-year-old Pier A building at the southern edge of Battery Park City. With the commission’s approval, that work—begun more than a decade ago but stalled amid disputes over unpaid rent—could start up in May and be completed by early next year, according to a an official of the Battery Park City Authority, which has a 49-year lease on the pier.

The Authority’s highest hope for the landmark building is to outfit it with a mix of retail and commercial uses.

“It’s an important project because of its historic significance and because it is the southern doorway to Battery Park City,” BPCA president James Cavanaugh said in an email to the Trib.  “It’s our goal to return this pier to its former splendor and to find a tenant that will compliment the surrounding community.”

But first, the building needs millions of dollars in repairs to its core and exterior. Since leasing the building in 2007, the Authority has already replaced much of its underwater support structure. This month, the Authority and its team from the firm of H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture will ask city Landmarks Commissioners to approve a complete refurbishing of the building’s façade, including new paint, windows and moldings, as well as alterations to three entryways on the north and west sides of the pier.

“[Pier A] is a real survivor of New York City’s historic harbor,” project architect Jack Martin said. “It has this great prominence as you approach the city, and it was actually the centerpiece of a plan to protect the entire harbor.”

Under the studio’s design, the building would be restored to the way it looked in the 1920s and early 1930s. Originally built in 1886 using many of the same materials and machinery that had just completed the Brooklyn Bridge, the building began its life as a docking station for harbor police and as a headquarters for the city Department of Docks and Ferries. It was later turned into an outpost of the Fire Department’s marine division, and then the headquarters of the city's Department of Marine and Aviation, an early predecessor of the modern Port Authority. The tower at the western end of the building was added in the early 20th century, originally as a watch post for the harbor and, in 1919, outfitted with a clock and rededicated as a memorial to soldiers killed in World War 1.

In recent years, the 125-year-old structure has been showing signs of its age. Listed on the National Historic Registry, the pier has gone unused for decades. Much of its distinctive Beaux Arts ornamentation was removed during a series of renovations in the 1960s and 70s that favored simple and inexpensive metal cladding. An effort in the 1990s to revive the pier stalled over a disagreement between the city and Wings Point, a private developer. Wings Point spent $20 million in renovations before the city barred it from the pier for failing to pay rent.

“Gradually, the building has been collapsing into the river,” Martin said. “Amazingly, it used to be in even worse shape than it is now.”

With potential retail and commercial tenants in mind, the Authority is also planning several million dollars worth of interior renovations, and redesigned floor plans that would provide sweeping views of the harbor.

“You get this incredible sense that you’re in this little boat just floating down the Hudson,” Martin said. “We don’t want to do anything that disturbs that view.”

The project’s hearing before the Landmarks Preservation Commission is scheduled for Feb. 16, the same day as the Authority’s deadline for proposals from interested commercial tenants. That Request for Qualifications went out in November—after negotiations with the National Parks Service to locate ferry operations for Liberty and Ellis Islands fell through.

Gwen Anderson, the Authority’s Director of Strategic Planning, said the agency has yet to decide on the types of tenants it wants to do business on the pier.

“Right now we’re just focused on creating as flexible a space as we possibly can,” she said.