City to Consider Seaport Plans Impact on Historic District

By Matt Dunning
POSTED SEPTEMBER 25, 2008

As one of the country’s biggest shopping mall developers prepares to send its plan for a revamped South Street Seaport to city landmarks preservation officials, Community Board 1 is scrambling to make sure it has a say in the proceedings.

On Oct. 21, General Growth Properties will begin a long approval process for its redevelopment of the South Street Seaport by seeking Landmarks Preservation Commission permission to relocate the 101-year-old Tin Building. The company hopes to move the building to the outer edge of Pier 17, making way for a 495-foot residential and hotel tower.

CB1’s Landmarks Committee was Informed of the crucial hearing late last month, during a presentation by General Growth. The committee declined to write an opinion of their own at the meeting, saying they hadn’t been given enough time to consider General Growth’s proposal, largely because the company never told them it had already scheduled its first hearing with the city.

“It’s simply not possible to make a reasoned judgment on this concept without understanding thoroughly what we’re talking about,” CB1 Landmarks Committee co-chairman Bruce Ehrmann said. “It’s like trying to approve Battery Park City in one vote.”

As a result, the board will convene a special meeting of all committee chairs at 6 p.m. on Oct. 15  at a location to be determined to establish its position at the commission hearing.

“This is the biggest thing the Community Board will deal with for the next year,” said Michael Levine, CB1’s director of land use and planning. “By doing it this way, before the [Landmarks Commission] meets, we ensure that the board will be able to participate in the public discussion.”

Of the three applications General Growth has submitted to the city—including demolish of the Pier 17 mall, and construction of a new retail building and boutique hotel on the south side of the pier—the relocation of the landmark Tin Building may be the most pivotal element for all the parties involved. If the commission does not sign off on the relocation, General Growth cannot build its 42-story tower, which developers called the financial backbone of the entire reconstruction project.

Meanwhile, the height of the tower, on a site just outside the historic district, has been one of CB1’s central complaints about the proposal since designs were released earlier this year. Sending the landmarks commission a recommendation against the Tin Building’s relocation may be one of the few ways the board can bargain with General Growth to reduce the tower’s size or make other concessions to the community.

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