This bathroom is totally backed up.
An unassuming public comfort station that was billed as a “less expensive” and quicker-to-install option is still dangling in limbo — four years after the city approved the project.
The modular, $3.5 million restroom has been trapped in the procurement stage, leaving Manhattan residents near Fort Washington Park in the lurch.
“This bathroom has been in purgatory with design changes and legal reviews,” Merritt Birnbaum, president and CEO of the Riverside Park Conservancy, told The City.
The city Parks Department still estimates that the project will cost the same $3.5 million it was initially pitched as, but construction industry costs have climbed as much as 15% in the past six years, according to the report, published Monday.
“Construction costs are going up, and there’s still no bathroom at this location,” Birnbaum said.
The restroom at the park’s Discovery Playground has been bogged down since the project was pitched to the community in 2022 as part of the Parks Dept.’s “Better Bathrooms” initiative aiming to build modular bathrooms throughout the city.
At the time, officials said it would be “less expensive to build and can be installed more quickly and with less disruption” than the typical brick bathrooms at Big Apple parks.
The bathroom’s opening date was slated for March 2025, but the city has yet to secure proper permitting for the red, yellow and orange station a year later — and still doesn’t expect to start construction until 2027.
The comfort station would have been among the city’s first modular restrooms, meaning it would be created at a factory in three pieces then transported and assembled at the park.
One with the very same design popped up in Staten Island last year, despite the project kicking off at the same time — and even snagged a coveted design and architecture award.
According to the Parks Dept., the delay in the Manhattan bathroom build can be blamed on the location in Fort Washington Park, where connecting to the city’s sewer system is not possible.
Designers had to go back to the drawing board to include a holding tank to accommodate the sanitary waste, as well as obtain proper permitting approvals, which delayed the timeline, officials said.
The entire HVAC system also needed a redesign after Parks engineers raised concerns about the original air-conditioning system.
And, because of its proximity to the Hudson River and its location on a flood plain, the state Department of Environmental Conservation also had to get involved with the project, The City reported.
The Parks Dept. has since obtained the necessary permits and is currently looking for the construction crew that will build the modular restroom.
It could be at least another two years before the restroom opens at Discovery Playground.
The delayed project’s cost is higher than a similarly sized bathroom in the Bronx’s Soundview Park, which cost $2.1 million — but took 10 years to build.
The Parks Dept. plans to reconstruct 36 of its more than 700 comfort stations, and is working to add 46 new bathrooms as part of its “Better Bathrooms” initiative.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, earlier this year, also pledged $4 million to install up to 30 high-quality modular public restrooms throughout the five boroughs.
“We’ve heard the calls of New Yorkers for more public restrooms, and the purpose of this pilot was to test new ways to deliver restrooms more efficiently,” Gregg McQueen, a spokesperson for the Parks Dept., said in a statement.
“The Fort Washington Park location has posed unique challenges but we’re continuing with this project and will keep the community informed.”