[NYguy]

Originally Posted by SkyHigher

Any estimate on start dates? Next couple of years possible? Those pictures above look great. Really hope it has a lot of red in the facade would be such a breath of fresh air instead of the usual completely blue.

They haven't started the approvals process yet. They are just finishing up with their community outreach to try and see what they will present to the City for approval.

“I don’t think they once mentioned that 250 Water Street is in the historic district,” said Paul Goldstein, the chair of Community Board 1’s Waterfront, Parks and Cultural Committee, who attended the workshop. “I don’t think the word historic district even arose.”

Community Board 1 and local activists are expected to fight any large-scale project at 250 Water Street during the public land use review required for a zoning variance. And they are likely to oppose the developer’s efforts to scrap a city rule that specifically prohibits its needed transfer to 250 Water Street of 450,000 square feet of air rights from two Seaport properties that Hughes Corp. leases from the city.

That air rights transfer would almost certainly need the consent of Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who said she has her own doubts. She told the Trib in a statement: “With the future of the Seaport District at stake, the community’s priority is clear: we need a conversation about bulk and density that fully takes into account the context of this historic area. At this point, I don't believe the case has been properly made to residents that an air rights transfer is even necessary.”

On a possible air rights transfer, a spokesperson for the city’s Economic Development Corp., the agency that oversees the Seaport properties, emphasized in a statement the long road ahead for the developer, which has to go through a “competitive public procurement as well as multiple land use approval processes.”

“As stewards of the Historic South Street Seaport,” the spokesperson said, “we take the community’s priorities seriously and look forward to engaging further with local stakeholders on how to best equip the neighborhood for the future.”

Hoping to pave a path forward, Hughes Corp. is promising an array of local improvements, including a new $50 million, 30,000-square-foot building for the South Street Seaport Museum at John and South Streets, and a $100 million, 75,000 square-foot building for an undetermined community use, at the site of the current New Market Building. Then there are the host of other possible local improvements, from an upgraded play street for the Peck Slip School to a community theater to a skate park.

The NIMBYs are going to fight to the death. But they also don't want the tower that could be built directly on the waterfront, which could be built as of right. And the 250 Water Street site is a site that has to be "cleaned up". They building that can go on site already is pretty massive, just not tall. But massive enough for the district. It would overshadow all of the historic buildings. They should recognize a "win" when they see it. Instead of the district being "sandwiched" in between two massive buildings, they would get one slimmer, taller tower, and keep the waterfront open.