Seaport designated one of US’ most endangered historic places

Howard Hughes’ proposed tower would greatly diminish site, advocates say

Rendering of South Street Seaport development (credit: SHoP Architects) (inset: Howard Hughes Corp. CEO David Weinreb)
Rendering of South Street Seaport development (credit: SHoP Architects) (inset: Howard Hughes Corp. CEO David Weinreb)

Lower Manhattan’s South Street Seaport was added to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the most endangered historic places in the country, the organization announced Tuesday night.

The announcement comes in the wake of the site’s developer, the Howard Hughes Corp., indicating that it could further back down from plans for a waterfront skyscraper, Crain’s reported. The developer recently said in a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio that it would rethink the tower’s height, after it already shrunk plans for the building from 52 stories to 43 stories.

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“The proposed developments will have an overwhelming impact on the historic neighborhood, diminishing the seaport’s unique relationship to the water and compromising the most intact 19th Century neighborhood in Manhattan,” Stephanie Meeks, the trust’s president, said in a statement.

In May, Howard Hughes and General Growth Properties were sued by retail tenants at the South Street Seaport who claimed they collected fees for a merchant’s association that didn’t exist. [Crain’s] — Tess Hofmann