The real estate development empire, Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC), will submit a revised design proposal for the mixed-use 250 Water Street with the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) today. Despite currently being a 400-space surface parking lot, the plot is protected by LPC as it is in the South Street Seaport Historic District.

The original Skidmore, Owings & Merrill design (see below) included 757,000 square feet distributed across two 470-foot-tall towers sitting on a podium base. Reducing the design by nearly 30 percent based on LPC feedback, the new plan includes just one 550,000 square foot, 300-foot tall building. 

According to HHC’s promotional site Seaport Vision, only 2.5 percent of housing in the South Street Seaport district is affordable. The new design will provide 70 affordable rental apartments (versus the 100 original). They also state their plan will “generate more than $1.2 billion in economic impact, creating over 2,000 construction jobs and nearly 2,500 permanent jobs across the commercial, retail, and nonprofit sectors.” And the icing on their development cake is that they plan to “extend a lifeline” to the South Street Seaport Museum with a $50 million endowment.

Despite their active engagement in supporting local cultural institutions, the Municipal Society of the Arts (MSA) expressed “serious concerns” about the original proposal due to its disproportionate hulking size. MSA cited the 2003 rezoning of the South Street Seaport Subdistrict that ensures any future development would be contextual to the neighborhood. Specifically, MSA pointed to the C6-2A contextual zoning which imposed a height restriction of 120 feet. 

If the LPC approves the current design, the next step involves acquiring a special permit from the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure as the developer needs to buy air rights from nearby properties to achieve the desired mass.

250 Water Street is only one piece of a much larger $800 million plan, which includes the redevelopment of Pier 17 -“450,000 square feet of dynamic culinary, fashion, entertainment and cultural experiences.”

If this design is rejected, a New York Post article implies the HHC will build a much smaller building as-of-right with no affordable units and no financial benefit to the South Street Seaport Museum.

We’re eager to hear what the LPC does with this new plan. Stay tuned.