Former Pier Dance Space to Become Futuristic Park, Performance Space

If all goes according to a billionaire's plans, Pier 54, the longtime home to New York City's Heritage of Pride's annual Dance on the Pier, will undergo a drastic makeover that will transform the decaying dock into a futuristic fantasy island-like waterfront park and performance space.

The bill for the $130 million project will be picked up by billionaire Barry Diller and his wife designer Diane von Furstenberg, DNAInfo reports.

Details on the project which is named "Pier55," were unveiled Monday. Plans call for a 2.7 acre public space surrounded by water on all sides, built offshore in the Hudson River. Although the cost of the park itself will be paid for privately, the cost of the $18 million set of pathways that will connect the park to Manhattan, will be paid for by state funds.

"I have always loved public spaces," Diller said in a statement published by The New York Times. "It's entirely my fault that this has become so ambitious. We will fail in our ambition, outsized or whatever it may be, if this doesn't feel completely like a park and completely like a performance space."

To oversee the performance space, which will include three venues including an amphitheater, Diller has enlisted high-profile entertainment industry professionals including Tony Award-winning director George C. Wolfe and film and theater producer Scott Rudin.

The New York Daily News points out that critics of the project are concerned about privatization of public space.

"Diller is obviously being extremely generous, but private citizens are being able to dictate public spaces," said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates. "The public has been completely left out."

Diller and company are looking to secure a 20-year lease on the property, which will have to be approved by Hudson River Park's board of directors and Community Board 2.

Pier 54 was the longtime home of the annual Dance on the Pier, which is gay pride organization Heritage of Pride's largest annual fundraiser. The party has since moved to Pier 26 in TriBeCa where it has been held since 2013. Pop music superstars Whitney Houston, Jennifer Lopez and Janet Jackson were among the many luminaries who performed on Pier 54 as part of the annual circuit party.

If approved, work on Pier55 will begin next year with a scheduled completion date of late 2018 or early 2019.