The view from South Street Seaport is about to get “much” higher for everyone except for some grumpy neighbors in nearby Southbridge Towers.
On Tuesday, a state appeals court slammed the doors of apartment dwellers who were fighting to dam recent buildings on a vacant lot on Water Street that might have blocked their view.
The choice means Howard Hughes Corporation’s long-planned, $850 million apartment complex at 250 Water St. can finally move forward.
The project is expected to have 399 apartments, 100 of which shall be reasonably priced, together with shops, offices and social space.
As a part of the deal, Hughes pays $40 million for the air rights to Pier 17 and the Tin Constructing to support the non-profit South Street Seaport Museum.
Howard Hughes Corp. has owned empty ugliness since 2018.
He desired to create a mixture of low cost and reasonably priced housing and green spaces to enhance Hughes’ revival of the adjoining South Street Seaport.
But the inhabitants of the south bridge across Water Street preferred to go away the land empty quite than lose sight of the river.
Activists have been fighting for years to torpedo the plan, with some going so far as urging the city to make use of the lot as a tow pound to stop construction.
Although Hughes’ plan was approved by the City Council in 2021, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron overturned it last winter, citing a supposedly “unacceptable” relationship between Hughes and the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The Appellate Division unanimously rejected Engoron’s ruling that the Seaport District project was erroneously approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
“The court’s decision confirms what we now have maintained all along: The Commission’s approval was appropriate and made in full compliance with the monuments law,” Zach Winick, co-chairman of Hughes’ New York Operations, said in a press release.
Since the appeals ruling was unanimous, it is unlikely it could possibly be reviewed by the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.