Chinatown’s Kimlau Plaza will get a major makeover, Mayor Eric Adams will announce in Wednesday’s State of the City address, City Hall sources told amNewYork Metro.
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Mayor Eric Adams is set to announce a $55.8 million redesign of a major plaza in Manhattan’s Chinatown that aims to give the neighborhood a new public space and “Gateway Arch,” during his State of the City address on Wednesday.
According to the Mayor’s office, Kimlau Square, which sits at the center of a six-way intersection at the edge of Chinatown in Lower Manhattan, will be redeveloped in three parts: expanding the square into a pedestrian plaza with shortened street crossings, building a new arch that will provide an entrance to the neighborhood and beautifying Park Row between the plaza and the Brooklyn Bridge.
The redesign is jointly funded by the city and the state, with the city contributing $44.3 million and the state pitching in $11.5 million, and was conceived through engagement with the Chinatown community, City Hall stated.
“Our joint $55 million investment will allow us to create world-class public space in an area which desperately needs it, bring order to one of the most chaotic intersections in New York City, and give one of New York City’s most historic neighborhoods the entrance it deserves,” Adams said in a statement.
The city will kick off the community engagement process for all three parts of the project in the next month, according to Ya-Ting Liu, the city’s chief public realm officer.
Liu said the project is a major expansion of an earlier effort supported by a state grant program — known as the Downtown Revitalization Program, which is the source of the state funding. She said that program, which doled out funding for the project a couple of years ago, involves a community engagement process, where area residents and organizations came up with ideas to improve the neighborhood together and submitted those that were most…
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