Harrod's, or a Big Retailer, Is Sought for Seaport

The developer that owns the rights to the South Street Seaport and the former Fulton Fish Market is trying to breathe life back into a complex commercial and residential project by promising a large, name brand retailer, a floating swimming pool, and a community center at the site, according to sources familiar with the project. Among the retailer names that have surfaced in recent weeks as potential anchor tenants are Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Barneys New York, and Target.

The developer, General Growth Properties, is charging ahead with plans and has held numerous outreach meetings in recent days, hoping to recruit support from elected officials and the community. No plan has yet been certified with the city, and the developers are still in negotiations with the city's Economic Development Corporation.

This newest proposal comes after General Growth failed in its bid last year to build a 50-story residential tower on the waterfront lots where it controls the leasehold.

General Growth's manager for the Seaport, Janell Vaughan, said the company was in discussions with a wide range of potential tenants, which is in keeping with plans to take the retail mix further upscale.

"We are in the process of getting feedback from all the stakeholders," she said. "But our goal is to reconnect the seaport" to the
Financial District. She declined to be more specific about the plans.

Several large projects around the city have stalled in recent months amid concerns about slowing economic growth, and officials familiar with this project say it also faces an uphill battle. General Growth needs public funding to rebuild the area's infrastructure, including a costly pier, and must gain the necessary approvals through the city's uniform land use review process. That process requires input from the local community board and the Manhattan Borough President, and approval by the city's Planning Commission and the City Council.

The South Street Seaport has lagged while the surrounding neighborhood has seen rapid revitalization. Over the last three years, the financial district has seen a transformation like few other parts of Manhattan, with an influx of high-end retailers like Tiffany's & Co. and Hermes, coupled with a construction boom of condos that has repopulated a corner of the city that was typically deserted by 7 p.m. on weekdays and desolate on the weekends.

"That area has been through three gentrifications over 25 years and the neighborhood has grown a lot," the chairman of retail leasing and sales at Prudential Douglas Elliman, Faith Hope Consolo, said. "But that project has not kept up with it."

The South Street Seaport, which boasts 340,000 square feet of leasable space and thousands more square feet of outdoor space, counts as its retailers stores including Abercrombie & Fitch, J. Crew, Victoria's Secret, and Footlocker. Competition for high-end stores is expected to get even stiffer with the thousands of feet of retail that is envisioned in and around the World Trade Center.

Harrods has reportedly been eyeing a possible expansion to America, though a spokesman for the British retailer said yesterday that there are no concrete plans in place for a store in Manhattan.

One open question that remains is a plan for Pier 17. General Growth is looking to replace the pier with a 50-story building, and in return would offer residents a community space that would be tens of thousands of square feet.

The chairman of Community Board One, Julie Menin, who is also a potential candidate for City Council, said that discussions with the developers are ongoing and have been focusing on the size and type of community center that would be built.

"If they are proposing hugely tall towers then we need to understand all the various options that are on the table," she said.
Ms. Menin said she appreciated the developers' outreach, but she also said negotiations over the tower could only go so far. "No community amenity is worth a tower that is too tall," she said.