After Bruising Reversal by Higher Court, Seaport Tower Foes Fight On

In May 2021, after filing a suit against the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission and developer Howard Hughes Corp., opponents of a planned residential tower at 250 Water Street stand outside the site, which at the time was a parking lot. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Opponents of a planned 324-foot residential tower in the South Street Seaport Historic District at 250 Water St. are down but say they are not out in their long legal fight against the Landmarks Preservation Commission and developer Howard Hughes Corp.

After the New York State Appellate Court on June 6 unanimously reversed [1] a lower court’s Jan. 12 ruling in their favor, the Seaport Coalition [2] filed a motion [3] late last month to reargue the case or to appeal the decision to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.

Construction had been on hold since State Supreme Court Judge Arthur F. Engoron invalidated [4] the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s approval of the tower.

The Coalition, which includes Children First, Save Our Seaport and Southbridge Towers, argued that “close coordination” between the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the developer, the Howard Hughes Corp. [5], undermined the LPC’s impartiality in its role of protecting city-designated historic districts. The developer had promised to support the struggling South Street Seaport Museum if the building were approved. They cited an “unheard of” 50 or more communications between Howard Hughes Corp. and LPC staff and “untold millions of dollars on lawyers and lobbyists to craft a strategy to taint or corrupt the LPC process and obtain a predetermined result,” the Coalition said in a statement.

In its decision, the Appellate Court’s five-judge panel ruled that the LPC decision “was not arbitrary and capricious or irrational” and that it “did not rely on improper considerations” or “improper communications between LPC and the developer.”

In a statement, Zach Winick, Howard Hughes Corp.’s New York Region Co-President, said the appeals court decision “confirms what we have maintained all along: the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s approval of our project was proper and made in full compliance with the Landmarks Law.” Following the Coalition’s June 29 court filing, a Howard Hughes Corp. spokesman said the developer remained “confident” in the Appellate Division’s decision and reiterated that the LPC acted appropriately. 

The $850 million project is planned to include 190 market-rate condos and 80 below-market apartments, with a 5-story base of office, retail and community uses.