Diller Island Returns

Thanks to a deal brokered by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the $250 million pier renovation project chiefly funded by billionaire Barry Diller may be back on.

David Shankbone – Barry Diller
in 2009

Diller announced Sept. 13 to the New York Times that he was pulling out of a years-long process of trying to advance the project – which would include a new park and performing arts center – due to resistance from the City Club of New York and billionaire Douglas Durst.

Not content to let the project die, the Governor subsequently reached out to the project’s opponents and apparently addressed enough of their concerns that resistance to the renovation is being removed, the Times reported Oct. 25.

“I’m going to make one last attempt to revive plans to build the park, so that the intended beneficiaries of our endeavor can fall in love with Pier 55 in the way all of us have,” Diller said in a statement, according to the paper.