Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Opposing Controversial 250 Water Street Seaport Building

A lawsuit to stop construction of a controversial $850 million mixed-use building in the South Street Seaport was dismissed on Wednesday, but an opposition group has vowed to continue their campaign.

A "smaller" plan for 250 Water Street was approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in May. The plans, developed by the Howard Hughes Corporation, had been revised after complaints that the 470 foot-tall proposed structure was inappropriate for community (an earlier iteration was over 900 feet), since it sits in the seaport's historic district.

The approved "scaled-back" version is 324 feet tall, with 24 stories, and will have 270 apartments, with at least 70 of them set aside as affordable housing. Howard Hughes had also offered donations to support the South Street Seaport Museum, and argued that the apartments and commercial businesses would help boost the local economy.

However, opponents have found any major changes to the neighborhood distasteful, even lobbying at one point to relocate an NYPD tow pound to the lot instead. A coalition of groups filed a lawsuit in the summer arguing that the landmarks commission "ignored its mandate" by approving the building "despite being more than three times the height of any existing building in the district."

Crain's New York now reports that Judge Arthur Engoron dismissed the suit, pointing out that the landmarks commission's decision was "not final and thus not ripe for judicial review."

The Seaport Coalition argued that the dismissal was only about when they would be able to contest the building's construction. Attorney Saul Shapiro said in a statement, "The advantage to us for having 'lost' the motion is that we will now have the opportunity to take advantage of the additional time to further craft, enhance, supplement and polish our pleadings that we will file."

Further, the Seaport Coalition insists that the Landmarks Preservation Commission is changing "the ground rules for historic preservation in New York City by accepting a tradeoff of promises for worthy causes, i.e., the South Street Seaport Museum, and/or affordable housing units for approvals."

A spokesperson for the Howard Hughes Corp., James Yolles, told Crain's, "We appreciate the court’s thoughtful review and quick dismissal of this lawsuit. Supporters around the neighborhood and across the city agree with transforming the parking lot at 250 Water St. into an architecturally distinguished building that is appropriate to the historic district."