The opponents of the tower planned for 250 Water in the Seaport Historic District won a lawsuit in state Supreme Court earlier this month, stopping construction on the site — at least for now.
The Seaport Coalition, which includes Southbridge Towers, Save Our Seaport and Children First, sued the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission for violating its own mandate when it approved Howard Hughes Corp.’s plans for the full block development site. Judge Arthur Engoron agreed, and his decision declared the developer’s Certificate of Appropriateness null and void, meaning construction had to stop. (You can download the decision here on the coalition’s site.)
The decision delves into the history of the site, going back to the 1980s, and notes that four times, Landmarks refused to approve applications for high-rise development there. The fact that it approved it this time, denying the agency’s own precedent, made it clear that the approval was “arbitrary and capricious,” according to case law. He also balked at the fact that the developers were offering cash for the South Street Seaport Museum as part of the deal.
“LPC is tasked with a particular mission, to wit, to preserve the historical character of designated areas and buildings, and here, it abused that discretion by diverging from a prior practice without explaining why,” Engoron stated in the decision. He went on: “The Citizens of New York City are entitled to feel confident that a controversial, counterintuitive decision to allow a skyscraper to be built in a low-rise historic district after repeated decisions disallowing such a structure, and without a coherent explanation, was made solely on the merits and not because of a quid pro quo, even one with the laudable purpose of museum funding. The instant record does not justify any such confidence.”
This, of course, is not the end. In a statement, a Howard Hughes Corp. spokesman said, “We respectfully disagree with Judge Engoron’s decision and believe that the Appellate Division will overturn this decision in due course.”
The Howard Hughes Corp.’s plans for the full block between Pearl and Water, Peck Slip and Beekman (see more here and here) call for a 26-story mixed use development with 270 apartments, 70 of which will be affordable rentals, plus office, retail and community space. The site has to be remediated for mercury, and that work will continue in the meantime.
