The Howard Hughes Corp. (HHC) has unveiled its plan to redevelop an old glue factory site in the South Street Seaport as a 470 ft. twin tower apartment complex.
The developer said the $1.4 billion development at 250 Water
Street will include 100 affordable apartments and renovations to the Seaport
Museum that will help keep it “financially secure” for decades to come.
HHC said the project will create 2,000 construction jobs and
nearly 2,500 permanent jobs generating $1.8 billion towards the city’s economic
recovery.
“As New York City works to recover from the devastating
impacts of the pandemic, we are redoubling our commitment to the city and the
Seaport. We aim to be part of the solution by investing in this unique,
historic neighborhood and its economy, providing a crucial lifeline to the
Seaport Museum, and building affordable housing in an area where housing prices
are out of reach for most New Yorkers,” said Saul Scherl, president of the New
York Tri-State Region, The Howard Hughes Corporation.
“Over the last five years, we’ve received input from a wide range of neighbors about the Seaport’s future that has helped shape our proposal, which honors the area’s history and culture. We’re eager to continue the constructive dialogue with the community and our local elected officials as we move toward public review.”
Howard Hughes has been pushing to develop the site since
buying it from the Milstein family for $182 million in 2018.
Now a tarmac parking lot, the site was once a glue factory,
chemical plant and mercury warehouse, and the land was contaminated with a slew
of toxic pollutants.
The Milstein family faced several challenges in its attempts
to develop the site, including community opposition, downzoning and litigation.
Howard Hughes has been similarly hamstrung. However, it has
been working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
and Department of Health on a Brownfield Cleanup Program, even funding an
independent community monitor to ensure the safe environmental remediation of
the 250 Water Street parking lot.
Now it wants to move the plan forward with what it calls “a
comprehensive public review.” Howard Hughes said it will present the plan to
the Landmarks Preservation Commission in December before beginning the city’s Uniform
Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) in the spring of 2021.
Under that timeline, if it gets approved, construction could start in 2022.
250 Water Street is a full block site located on the edge of
the Seaport Historic District. Vacant and used as a surface parking lot for
decades, it has no historic significance.
HHC’s plan was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
(SOM). After multiple dry runs – which included a single 1,000 ft. skyscraper –
the architects have crafted a twin tower development on a scaled podium base.
The highest point of the development is 470 ft. and the base
is “articulated” to allow light down to surrounding streets, and it will have storefronts
compatible with those found in the district.
The 250 Water proposal also includes enhancements to the
Peck Slip Play Street used by the neighboring Peck Slip School and Seaport
families, as well as community-oriented spaces and office space.
But the centerpiece of the proposal, said HHC, is inclusion
of the first affordable housing built in Manhattan Community Board 1 through
the City’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program.
The development will have 360 apartments – 260 market rate
condos and 100 MIH affordable rental apartments that will be made available to
families earning 40 percent of Area Median Income.
HHC’s plan also includes $50 million “essential support” for
the South Street Seaport Museum, whose collections include artwork, photos and
artifacts from the city’s seafaring heyday.
Its most “significant and visible holdings” include its
19th-century home on Schermerhorn Row, a working letterpress printing shop, and
its fleet of historic ships.
Over the past two decades, the museum has survived
significant setbacks, including a two-year closure after 9/11, the 2008
financial collapse, crippling flooding during Hurricane Sandy, and now an
existential threat resulting from the COVID pandemic.
According to HHC, for many years, the Museum has cared for its
properties at the expense of its long-term financial health and, without
reliable funding, faces a potential for permanent closure.
As part of its proposal, HHC will give the Museum $50 million to advance a first phase of restoration and rehabilitation that will enable the Museum to reopen and start the process of planning a new state-of-the-art museum building on an adjacent vacant lot.
Jonathan Boulware, president of the South Street Seaport
Museum, said the money will help it thrive. “For decades the Seaport Museum has
credibly delivered its world-renowned and award-winning program despite a
perennial shortage of reliable revenues,” said Boulware.
“Following the repeated setbacks the Museum has endured, the
pandemic is a terrible blow. The proposed financial support from this project
and phased improvements to its Schermerhorn Row home would go a very long way
to ensuring that this irreplaceable jewel in New York’s crown survives and
thrives.”
Before the project can go ahead, it requires a number of
government approvals.
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC)
must approve the designs of the 250 Water Street Building and the new Museum
Building as well as the improvements to the Museum’s historic buildings.
The entire plan hinges on the transfer of unused development
rights from the HHC-leased Pier 17 and Tin Building sites to 250 Water Street.
Mary Ann Tighe, a member of HHC’s board of director and Chief
Executive Officer of the New York Tri-State Region for CBRE, has called the
project “visionary.”
She said, “The Howard Hughes Corporation remains firmly
committed to the Seaport and New York City for the long-term, with mixed-income
housing and a plan to save the Seaport Museum at the heart of our commitment.
“We believe visionary projects like this will help propel the city’s economic recovery.”
Catherine McVay Hughes, South Street Seaport Museum Board
member and former Chair of Manhattan Community Board 1, said the plan
represents the first pandemic-recovery investment downtown and it is “reminiscent
of early investment following 9/11.”
In 2015, the Seaport area lost 1,650 formerly income-restricted apartments from the Mitchell-Lama program when the nearby Southbridge Towers was converted to a co-op.
As of today, the 250 Water Street site has been approved for the Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP), one of New York’s primary tools to ensure the effective cleanup and reuse of urban brownfields. The primary contaminant of concern is mercury, which is related to the former use of the site as a thermometer factory.
However, HHC has not yet submitted a formal remediation plan
for the site, which is still in the investigation phase.
Remedial Investigation field work began June 15, 2020 and
environmental sampling data is currently under review by DEC and the Department
of Health. That review, which should determine exactly what contaminants may be
in the ground and how they can be safely neutralized, is expected to be
complete in early 2021.
After that, HHC will be required to design a formal cleanup plan, subject to public review and comment, that ensures the site is contaminant free and appropriate for the intended future use of the site.
