The view from the South Street Seaport is about to get a “lot” better for everyone — except for some cranky neighbors at nearby Southbridge Towers.
A state appeals court Tuesday slammed the door on apartment residents who fought to block new buildings from rising at an empty lot on Water Street that would block their views.
The decision means that Howard Hughes Corporation’s long-planned, $850 million apartment complex at 250 Water St. can finally go forward.
The project is to have 399 apartments, of which 100 will be affordable, along with stores, offices and community space.
As part of the deal, Hughes will pay $40 million for air rights from Pier 17 and Tin Building to support the nonprofit South Street Seaport Museum.
Howard Hughes Corp. has owned the vacant eyesore since 2018.
It wanted to create a mix of market-rate and affordable housing and green space to complement Hughes’ revival of the South Street Seaport next door.
But Southbridge-dwellers across Water Street preferred to keep the land vacant rather than lose their river views.
Activists led a years-long struggle to torpedo the plan, with some going as far as urging the city to use the lot as a tow pound to prevent construction.
Although Hughes’ plan was approved by the City Council in 2021, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron nixed it last winter, citing an allegedly “impermissible” relationship between Hughes and the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The Appellate Division unanimously threw out Engoron’s ruling that the Seaport District project was wrongly approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
“The court’s decision confirms what we have maintained all along: The Commission’s approval was proper and made in full compliance with Landmarks Law,” Zach Winick, co-president of Hughes’ New York operations, said in a statement.
Because the appellate ruling was unanimous, it is highly unlikely it can be reviewed by the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
