When Sciame Development announced plans for the architecturally ambitious Santiago Calatrava-designed, 835-foot residential tower near the South Street Seaport in March 2004, they said it would be built by the end of this year or next.
As it turns out, 80 South Street is up in the air — though probably not in the way its developers intended.
With a vanishing marketing company and a building plan that’s about to expire, any groundbreaking for the would-be celebrated addition to Manhattan’s skyline is unlikely to occur anytime soon.
Sales on the project’s 10 cantilevered glass townhouses — the cheapest going for $29 million — began in September 2005, and a firm called I. Khan Inc. was named 80 South’s exclusive marketing and sales agent. An industry source has confirmed that I. Khan is no longer associated with the building’s marketing and sales, and the company’s name has been removed from the 80 South Street Web site.
Frank Sciame, president of Sciame Construction and Sciame Development, has been largely quiet on the progress of 80 South Street over the past year, but in April he told the Wall Street Journal there had been no bids on the project’s townhouses.
Since then, there’s been no word on whether any units have been bid on or sold, and some speculate that the project may be changed so the 10,000-square-foot townhouse units are chopped up, with the smaller spaces offered at less prohibitive prices. A representative from Sciame would not comment on the matter.
“The project is alive and well and moving forward,” said Keith Behnke, vice president of operations at Sciame Construction. “Sciame is actively keeping details under wraps because it’s a complicated deal, and we have to respect the privacy of the potential occupants.”
In less than two months, though, the New York City Department of Buildings will not consider 80 South “alive and well.”
The building plans for 80 South Street were approved on January 28, 2005, according to Tori Edmiston, a department spokesperson. Edmiston added that construction permits for the plan have not been issued.
Edmiston said that after two years, building plans are considered “dormant” by the DOB — although they have not officially expired, a developer must go through most of the plan approval process for a second time before construction permits are issued. The plan must be checked to ensure that it complies with current zoning and other municipal regulations.
In a little over a month, then, the plans for 80 South Street will be more or less obsolete as far as the DOB is concerned.
It seems doubtful that 80 South Street, if built, will conform exactly to Sciame’s original plans, though its design visionary, Calatrava, said in an interview in last month’s Fortune magazine that he continued to have “hope” for the project.