The project's second phase, which runs between 20th and 30th streets, is scheduled for completion next year. Public access will be limited during peak hours during the first summer of the first phase, which runs between Gansevoort and 20th streets.

Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corp., says in a statement that the project "takes a unique piece of New York's 20th century industrial past and repurposes it for the 21st century. When we at EDC began work on the High Line more than three years ago, the Far West Side of Manhattan was still in the early stages of its renaissance. We are proud to see that, as this project opens to the public, the promise that it represented has already catalyzed a remarkable transformation of this great and storied neighborhood."

Much of the park falls within the West Chelsea Special District, a zoning area created in June 2005. Since the rezoning, 1,374 new housing units and slightly less than 500,000 square feet of commercial office space have been completed or put into construction along the High Line. A total of 33 new housing, commercial, retail, nonprofit and gallery projects are completed, in construction or in the planning stage as a result of the new economic development opportunities provided by the park, according to a release.