Frying Pan moves to Pier 66, floating on uncertainty

Volume One, Issue 32, April 27 - May 3, 2007

Chelsea Now photo by Adrian Jimenez

The Frying Pan (left) and Lackawanna barge, at their new home on the Chelsea waterfront at Pier 66

By Adrian Jimenez

John Krevey is a maritime man, his jeans stained with grease and his face tan from years of sun exposure. Nearly 20 years ago he bought one of 13 remaining U.S. Coast Guard lightships—or floating lighthouses—out of more than 100 built, and brought it to Pier 63, just north of Chelsea Piers, from the Chesapeake Bay, where it had been sitting for 10 years at an oyster cannery. Since it had been used to guard Frying Pan shoals, 30 miles off Cape Fear, N.C., from 1929 to 1965, Krevy named it, appropriately enough, the Frying Pan, and opened it to the public as a multi-use outdoor space attached to a larger vessel, the Lackawanna railcar barge.

The Frying Pan thrived as a restaurant/bar, danceclub, host of a summer classic night film series, and kayak storage space for the Hudson River water community until last fall, when the Hudson River Park Trust closed Pier 63 to make way for construction of the park. Ever since, each of the constituencies that enjoyed Krevey’s boat has been waiting with baited breath for a verdict on the Frying Pan’s future. On April 9, they got part of their answer—and breathed a collective sigh of relief—when the boat-barge combo was moved north to Pier 66, between 26th and 27th Streets.

And though that move effectively ended months of speculation and doomsday predictions that the beloved boat would be put out to sea, never to return to the Chelsea shoreline, the fate of the Frying Pan and barge is far from sealed, according to Krevey and others close to the situation. In fact, while the boat seems to have found a new home—one that Krevey himself had set his sights on six years ago—he has yet to sign a lease with the Hudson River Park Trust, leaving him and many in the community on edge and its opening date treading water.

While the move to Pier 66 is proof that there has been progress made in negotiations, Krevey said, “We are entirely dependent on the Trust. While I hope we’ll reopen in late spring, or early summer, there is a possibility that we will not be opening this season. We don’t know anything until we have a lease. They [the Hudson River Park Trust] are a government agency that doesn’t seem to be beholden to the local community. They listen, they smile politely, and then they do whatever they want.”

The frustration in Krevey’s voice is evident, the result of years of jousting and negotiating with the Trust. Six years ago, he wrote to them, requesting to move the Frying Pan to the floating bridge at Pier 66, a spot he’d always loved. Back then, the Trust was busy with the downtown piers and ignored his requests, he said. Last fall, the Trust continued to deflect Krevey’s attempts to negotiate and sign a lease, shutting down the pier during the height of season, then fencing off access to his boat to make way for the park’s construction.

While the closing was inevitable, Krevey found the timing odd at best. “For some strange reason, they closed us three weeks before the end of the season. It just seemed rather heavy-handed,” he said. “[After fencing off the area], they wouldn’t let us go out on the boat at first. Then they said we could go by appointment. We were locked out by the Trust, but we innovatively found ways. I provided them a $5 million insurance policy, and I was still only allowed to get in by appointment. So, I just sort of made my own way in. It was not as a result of any cooperation.”

Through it all, Krevey has had a key ally in Julie Nadel, an outspoken waterfront activist who is on the Board of the Hudson River Park Trust. “If it wasn’t for her, I don’t think we would be anywhere near where we are right now,” Krevey said.

Nadel, meanwhile, credits Krevey for having withstood the vast bureaucracy of the Trust and for providing a meaningful space for all to enjoy. “Frankly, the barge, provided by a solitary individual with vision, allows the public complete access to historic ships. Thousands of people from the community have gone to have a glass of wine, a burger and enjoy the sunset,” she said.

Longtime Chelsea resident and activist Bob Trentlyon agrees that the Frying Pan has for years been a place for the Chelsea community to come and relax on the water. “The barge is wonderful. It’s a great place to go in the evening and watch the sun go down with a good burger and a beer,” Trentlyon said. “We used to run old classic movies there. People really enjoyed it.”

For her part, Nadel vehemently believes that the Board of the Trust has been making it difficult for Krevey, saying that she had spoken to an unnamed government official in Albany, and that “it was clear to him that what they [the Trust] were trying to do was to force [Krevey] out of the park.” But it was Krevey’s diligence, said Nadel, along with that of the grassroots water organizations at Pier 63 and Pier 40, and the tremendous support of the Chelsea community that forced the Trust to take notice and allow him to stay. She added that “as of last Friday, it appeared an informal agreement had been reached [between Krevey and the Trust]. But it is up to the Trust staff to finalize the lease.”

If the lease does get signed, the Frying Pan and Lackawanna barge would be considered part of the Hudson River Park, which means the barge will be forced to close when the park does, at 1 a.m. “The bar and café will be maintained,” Krevey said, “but the nightlife activities are terminated. No longer will we have turntables on the Hudson, because we will have an early closing.”

Meanwhile, at Pier 63 the Frying Pan and barge were also a home base to a large community of kayakers and other human-powered boaters, which included boating organizations such as the Manhattan Kayak Company, New York Outriggers, New York Polo and the Hudson River Paddler’s Guild. The Frying Pan’s closing and the lingering uncertainty about the barge has had a profound effect on them.

“One of the things that the barge did was, it gave us storage,” said Robert Huszar, an East Village resident and kayaker of 20 years who once paddled his way from the mouth of the Hudson River to Canada. “John Krevey opened the barge to everybody who needed it. If it was even remotely nautical, he said, ‘Sure, go ahead.’”

The Hudson River Park Trust has built a new boathouse at Pier 66, but it holds only 50 human-powered boats, far fewer than the 150 or so boats that were stored on the barge.

“Without storage facilities for kayaks and canoes available in close proximity to public access launch sites, most New Yorkers simply cannot participate in this type of boating,” said Nancy Brous of the Hudson River Watertrails Association and a longtime West Village resident.

The logistical snafu has also left Krevey scratching his head. “There’s a lot of kayakers out there that I feel for. What’s happened just defies logic,” he said.

Krevey is nonetheless appreciative of his new mooring at Pier 66 and looks forward to many more years serving the Chelsea community as a maritime part of the park.

“The park here is beautiful. The spot we have now, near the water wheel and the float bridge, is the best,” he said. “We sent our first letter six years ago to the Trust saying that we wanted to come to the float bridge, and we couldn’t have gotten a nicer part of the park.”

As for the lease he’s awaiting to be signed, Krevey is optimistic.

“Water sports, boating activities, we believe all of that is going to happen again and we can’t wait,” he said. “If it takes awhile, if it’s not this year but next, then we will wait.”