Goldman Sachs' Retail Vision for Battery Park City Becoming Clear
Adding to the slate of revamped commercial spaces adjacent to their Battery Park City headquarters—including three Danny Meyer restaurants—Goldman Sachs announced the planned arrival of another well-known restaurateur, Harry Poulakakos.
Poulakakos, whose family owns a collection of popular Financial District restaurants and bars, plans to open an artisan pizzeria in the space formerly occupied by Lily’s Noodle Shop & Grill, across the covered walkway from the Goldman Sachs building at 200 West Street. Unlike the other eateries, Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar will be open until 4 a.m. in deference to the financial giant’s overnight traders.
“We try to keep in tune with the people who are working and living in the area,” Harry Poulakakos’ son, Peter, told Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee earlier this month.
Last July, Goldman Sachs announced plans to overhaul its stable of nearby tenants and renovate its Embassy Suites Hotel next door. Along with Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar, its leasing plans for the east side of the covered walkway include:
• A Danny Meyer Shake Shack will move into the northeast corner of the Embassy Suites building (formerly Pizza Bolla).
• Pick-A-Bagel not only stays where it is but also plans to operate, a few doors down, a pair of as-yet unnamed fast-service restaurants serving sandwiches, salads and Asian cuisine
• In the Goldman Sachs building, fronting onto the east side of the walkway, the company is close to finalizing leases for a desert/bakery shop, eyeglass store, wine shop, and a gourmet grocery, Goldman managing director Dino Fusco told the committee.
Along the building’s Vesey Street side, Goldman will install a second outpost of Meyer’s barbecue spot Blue Smoke (formerly Chevy’s Mexican restaurant). Meyer will open a third, “signature” restaurant at the northwest corner of the building (formerly PacRim). Both restaurants, Fusco said, will likely not open until Goldman completes its renovation of the hotel, scheduled to open late this year.
The company has yet to finalize its roster of tenants for the remaining spaces on the south and west side of the hotel building. Fusco said the company is pursuing what he says will likely be a Latin American-themed restaurant just west of Blue Smoke on Vesey Street. The former Unity Restaurant space, at the corner of Vesey Street and North End Avenue, will likely house one or two small retailers, Fusco said.
The changes to the commercial spaces are just part of Goldman Sachs’ plans for the 10-year-old hotel building, repackaging it as Hilton-owned Conrad Hotel and enacting a sweeping renovation of its bottom four floors. Goldman closed the Embassy Suites in January so it could begin renovations. DSW Shoes and a New York Sports Club both opted out of leases in the hotel building with Goldman Sachs last year, Fusco said, leaving 45,000 square feet of space for the company to turn into a 600-person capacity ballroom and conference center. Other changes include the installation of a garden and a separate small, outdoor bar and terrace on the roof of the 14-story building.
The committee mostly liked what it saw of the planned changes. But they lamented the elimination of Regal Cinemas’ lower ticket counter in the base of the hotel building, and the steel, lighted marquee above the building’s eastern entrance, both of which will be replaced by a grand staircase and entryway leading up to the new hotel’s lobby and atrium. Tickets will still be sold in the upper lobby, and Fusco said movie times would be listed on LED boards above automated ticketing kiosks on the north and south faces of the hotel building. Responding to the concerns of some committee members that the 16-screen movie theater—one of Battery Park City’s few entertainment options—will be next to vacate the building, Fusco said Goldman Sachs would be hard-pressed to find a more suitable tenant for the theater’s space than Regal Cinemas.
“That space works very well as a movie theater, and it doesn’t work as very much else,” Fusco said, adding that the theater will remain open during renovations. “So we have an interest in making sure the movie theater stays successful.”