CityRealty prez pitches East River cable car once again

With the impending L train shutdown inching toward reality, the president of CityRealty is revisiting his idea to connect Williamsburg and Lower Manhattan via suspended cable cars.

Daniel Levy is once again floating the idea he first proposed in 2014 for the East River Skyway, and he says private investors could build the gondola system in time for the planned shutdown.

“It’s not going to be easy to get [it done] but it’s certainly not impossible,” Levy told DNAinfo, adding that a similar system went up in London in time for the 2012 Olympics. “It’s certainly well within reach.”

As the Metropolitan Transportation Authority moves closer to shutting down the Canarsie Tube carrying the subway under the East River for 18 months beginning in 2019, real estate players on the Brooklyn side are bracing for the potential impacts.

Levy has been meeting with investors and is working on organizing them for the effort, which he says can be done for an estimated $134 million.

While the L train carries about 300,000 passengers between the two boroughs each day, the Skyway would be able to ferry about 200,000 people across the river, according to DNAinfo. A monthly pass would cost $25.

On the Manhattan side, Levy would build a station a station at Delancey Street. The original plan called for one station in Brooklyn on the Williamsburg waterfront, but since news about the L Train broke he’s included plans for a second station near the base of the bridge.

The MTA has scheduled two public meetings on the topic of the L train shutdown: one at the Marcy Avenue Armory May 5 at 6 p.m. and another at the Salvation Army Theater by Union Square to be held May 12 at 5 p.m.

[DNAinfo] – Rich Bockmann