Can a $350 Million Plan Transform 5th Avenue Into a Grand Boulevard?

New York City officials and business leaders plan to expand sidewalks, add seating areas and trees and remove two car lanes to make the renowned avenue more pedestrian friendly.

Many New Yorkers have come to avoid a stretch of Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan that is perpetually choked by traffic and throngs of tourists clogging the sidewalk.

Now, there is a plan to restore the luster of the famed thoroughfare by revamping a central portion of it into a showcase boulevard for strolling and shopping, like the Champs-Élysées in Paris, Calle Serrano in Madrid or Bond Street in London.

Fifth Avenue is home to office towers and luxury stores such as Rolex and Harry Winston. It is also a major transit corridor, with more than 40 local and express bus routes carrying thousands of daily riders. Bus speeds there are among the slowest in the city.

The proposed redesign, which was announced Thursday, would span 20 blocks south of 60th Street, between Central Park and Bryant Park. It would significantly widen the sidewalks, add seating areas and plant more than 200 trees — while taking away two of the avenue’s five traffic lanes.

It was developed by a committee of city officials, business leaders and park stewards, which was formed in late 2022 after previous plans to update Fifth Avenue stalled, including one to create a busway to give buses priority over cars. There have been years of efforts to reimagine the corridor under two different mayoral administrations.