The Howard Hughes Corporation, which has long faced pushback over its development plans in the South Street Seaport, is moving forward with plans for a $1.4 billion mixed-use project for the neighborhood.
The publicly traded development firm on Thursday said it will begin the public review process to build a residential building on the site it owns at 250 Water Street with 260 condominiums and 100 affordable rentals.
The firm would need to secure approval for the project from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, as well as a zoning modification through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.
Howard Hughes said it will present its proposal to the LPC in December and aims to begin the ULURP process in the spring with an eye toward breaking ground in 2022.
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“Over the last five years, we’ve received input from a wide range of neighbors about the Seaport’s future that has helped shape our proposal, which honors the area’s history and culture,” Saul Scherl, president of the tri-state region for Howard Hughes, said in a statement.
The current proposal is scaled back from previous plans Howard Hughes had presented that received pushback from the local community. In its current form, the residential building, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, would rise 470 feet at its highest point, down from preliminary designs that would have been nearly 1,000 feet tall.
The company bought the site — one of the largest in the South Street Seaport, and currently home to a parking lot — for $180 million in 2018 from the Milstein family. Howard Hughes has faced pushback in the neighborhood before, leading it to abandon plans to build a 50-story hotel and condo on the waterfront.
To sweeten the deal, the company will make $50 million available to the Seaport Museum to help with its restoration, and eventually help construct a new building for the museum.