PHILANTHROPIST OFFERS CITY FREE BUILDING TO SAVE DOOMED HUDSON YARDS ARTS CENTER

The owner of a Manhattan arts complex says he’s willing to give away the cultural institution to save it.

William Hillman’s Affirmation Arts, which sits in the path of a planned Hudson Yards park and roadway expansion, faces the wrecking ball, along with nine other nearby properties. He says he’d gladly hand over his building to the city — on the condition it remain intact as a cultural center.

“I would like to give this building to the people of New York City to share with the world,” the artist and philanthropist testified Tuesday at a hearing on plans to condemn his West 37th Street property to make way for the last phase of a park and boulevard north of Hudson Yards.

Hillman would not say how much he expected to get for his renovated, three-story 1920 structure, should the city seize it as planned. But he told THE CITY Thursday donating the building would be “by far the greatest philanthropic gift” of his lifetime.

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