Landmarks clears Seaport’s Tin Building for new fancy fish market

Howard Hughes plans to move the building 18 feet from its current location

<em>Rendering of the Tin Building (inset: David Weinreb)</em>
Rendering of the Tin Building (inset: David Weinreb)

The South Street Seaport’s Tin Building will soon be home to a fish market run by celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday approved converting the Tin Building, one of the former homes of the Fulton Fish Market, into a seafood-themed market, Curbed reported. The developer, the Howard Hughes Corporation, plans to take the building apart and then reconstruct it 18 feet southeast of its current location. Relocating the building will move it further from FDR Drive and will allow the developer to raise the building above the flood plain.

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The building is just a piece of the developer’s planned $1.7 billion redevelopment of the South Street Seaport. Howard Hughes is also redeveloping the adjacent Pier 17. In October, Landmarks approved a design for the pier that excluded a controversial rooftop pergola. News surfaced on Wednesday that David Chang’s Momofuku restaurant group has inked a lease at Pier 17. In addition to the Tin Building, Vongerichten will join Chang at Pier 17 with a 10,000-square-foot restaurant.

Since it cut a deal with the city to control the seaport, Howard Hughes’ plans for the area have changed dramatically. In December, the developer abandoned plans for a 52-story condominium tower at the former Fulton Street Fish Market. Last week, the developer finalized its $390 million sale of 80 South Street to China Oceanwide Holdings. The City Planning Commission had approved a 300,000-square-foot mixed-use tower for the site prior to the sale. [Curbed] — Kathryn Brenzel