A rendering of the proposed 25-story building for 250 Water Street as seen from the Brooklyn Bridge.
Skidmore Owings & Merrill rendering for Landmarks Preservation CommissionA contentious $850 million proposed development in the South Street Seaport district that was ultimately scaled back due to community opposition won approval from a key city agency Tuesday, according to reports.
The Howard Hughes Corporation’s bid to build a 25-story mixed-use tower at 250 Water Street was approved 6-2 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the body that would need to greenlight any proposal in the historic district, the Real Deal reported.
The 48,000-square-foot site between Water and Pearl Streets at the corner of Peck Slip has long been used as a parking lot. Many previous attempts to develop the lot have failed, including an 11-story option that was approved in 1991. The previous Howard Hughes proposal, designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, was a 470-foot-tall project with two towers and about 360 apartments, including around 100 affordable apartments (earlier plans included towers as tall as 990 feet).
A photograph showing the current view of Beekman Street looking east
Skidmore Owings & Merrill rendering for Landmarks Preservation CommissionA rendering of 250 Water Street
Skidmore Owings & Merrill rendering for Landmarks Preservation CommissionThousands of residents petitioned against the proposal, calling it out of scale and “architecturally inappropriate” for the historic district—some opponents even suggested the NYPD move its tow pound to the site instead. Supporters of the project, including Councilmember Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, had argued that the community needs housing, especially affordable housing. The developer had also committed $50 million to the nearby Seaport Museum and applied for federal support to remove hazardous materials leftover from the district’s industrial history, City Realty reported.
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In the new plan, the developer has scaled back the plan to a single 540,000-square foot tower building, and reduced the height to 324 feet. A previous revision to the plan cut the number of apartments from 360 to 270, with 70 affordable units for people earning 40% of the area median income. The financial support for the museum has gone from $50 million in the original plan to an unnamed number.
A rendering of the proposed 25-story building for 250 Water Street
Skidmore Owings & Merrill rendering for Landmarks Preservation CommissionAn aerial photograph showing the current site of the project
Skidmore Owings & Merrill rendering for Landmarks Preservation CommissionJust 149 affordable apartments have been built in Community Board 1’s district during the entire de Blasio administration, which has been criticized for concentrating construction of affordable housing in lower-income neighborhoods through rezonings. And 1,651 affordable co-ops were lost in 2014 after Southbridge Towers voted to privatize and opt out of the Mitchell-Lama program for middle-class homes.
During the LPC hearing Tuesday, Commission chair Sarah Carroll said “I think the adjustments that have been presented today improve the clarity of the design and support my reasons for finding it appropriate,” the Architect’s Newspaper reported.
In a statement to the Real Deal, Howard Hughes executive Saul Scherl said, “We worked hard to produce a design that is responsive to the commission’s comments and preserves the project’s crucial benefits: deeply affordable housing in one of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods and meaningful funding for the South Street Seaport Museum.”
The next step for the application is to undergo land use review and win City Council approval, which supporters hope to do before Chin—as the district’s councilmember, an important supporter—leaves office at the end of the year.
