Bill Ackman-backed firm selling long-stalled – Business News
One of downtown’s longest-stalled development websites could get new life after billionaire hedge fund boss Bill Ackman’s Seaport Entertainment Group agreed to sell 250 Water St. for $150.5 million — a huge haircut from what the undeveloped lot fetched almost a decade in the past.
The eyesore within the shadow of the South Street Seaport, inherited by SEG in a spinoff final 12 months from Howard Hughes Corp., was scooped up by outstanding Big Apple developer Tavros, the businesses introduced Monday.
Hughes had purchased the one-acre, full-block website for $180 million in 2018 and spent $40 million more for air rights. It deliberate an $850 million development that includes a 27-story complicated with 399 residences above a five-story base with places of work, shops and group space.
The proposal was fiercely resisted by neighbors who didn’t need to lose their views and by activists who objected to the project’s scale. Hughes ultimately gained a courtroom battle to construct it as deliberate.
A rendering of the proposed Seaport Tower at 250 Water St.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
“Don’t think of it as a fire sale,” one downtown analyst informed The Post. “Seaport Entertainment isn’t a developer. The lot was an albatross around its neck at the same time it has its hands full with the Tin Building,” the money-losing Jean-Georges Vongerichten-branded food mecca close by.
Ackman, head of Pershing Square Holdings, owns a controlling 39% stake in SEG. He’s additionally the key shareholder in Howard Hughes, which spun off the Seaport and the close by lot with a purpose to think about Hughes’ nationwide development business.
“Ackman agreed the lot had to go,” the source stated.
Ackman didn’t reply to The Post’s request for remark.
Bill Ackman, head of Pershing Square Holdings, owns a controlling 39% stake in SEG. He’s additionally the key shareholder in Howard Hughes. Getty Images
SEG chairman Anton Nikodemus stated in a assertion the anticipated sale “marks a significant milestone … unlocking capital that is poised to enhance our balance sheet.”
Tavros has constructed or is finishing extremely profitable Gowanus Wharf in Brooklyn and main initiatives within the Meatpacking District and in Long Island City.
However, it’s unclear if Tavros plans to construct the identical complicated of residences, places of work, shops and public space that Hughes spent years to design, steer by the town’s tortuous review course of and defend from lawsuits.
There was no instant remark from Tavros, based by Nicholas Silver and Dov Barnett.
The authentic design of 250 Water Street featured two tall towers on a podium base. Credit: Howard Hughes Corporation
Downtown landlords, residents and workplace tenants shall be intently watching what occurs on the lot across the nook from the Pier 17 leisure complicated and one block west of South Street and the East River.
The deal raises hopes that the presently fenced-in lot will lastly blossom into much-needed residences and group parkland.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron had sided with activists, however was overruled by the state Court of Appeals in May 2024.
Hughes CEO David O’Reilley stated the inexperienced mild from the state’s highest courtroom “paves the way to begin construction.”
But the spinoff in July stalled issues again.
Realty Check predicted early this 12 months that the new company would attempt to sell the positioning.
SEG senior vice president Ellie Chamberland stated on the time, “We anticipate additional announcements regarding the future of 250 Water Street in the coming months.”
A JLL staff brokered the sale to Tavros, which SEG’s Nikodemus praised as “an experienced and engaged developer well-positioned to bring this project to life in a way that respects the character of the neighborhood.”
