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March 19, 2016- A real estate blog is reporting that this tower will be as tall as the Freedom Tower, at 1,436 feet and 113 stories. This is yet another pencil-tower being built by foreign investors to serve as a safety deposit box rather than a place for people to really live.
February 11, 2016- The celebrations over blocking the hideous pencil-tower on Pier 17, proposed by Bill Ackman and his Howard Hughes Corporation, seem to have been premature. Needing cash, Howard Hughes sold the air rights to the adjacent plot at 80 South Street. There are renderings of a 1000-foot skyscraper.
The city was behind it all. Observer reports, “The City Planning Commission has just approved the transfer of thousands of square feet of air rights from an adjacent lot to 80 South Street, a tipster has revealed to Curbed. The approval has also been confirmed by a City Planning Commission spokesperson. Since the lots were acquired by the U.S. subsidiary of the Chinese investment company China Oceanwide Holdings in August 2015 from the Howard Hughes Corporation, 426,940 square feet of air rights have been transferred to the lot. Early rumors surrounding the site speculated that the developer was planning a supertall tower. While no plans have been filed with the Department of Buildings, it looks like at least something is up.
The transfer could lead to the construction of a building spanning 1,067,350 square feet, of which slightly over 512,300 could be used for residential space according to documents submitted to the City Planning Commission. The documents also reveal that the developer is planning on constructing a building with residential units, as well as hotel, office, and/or retail space.
China Oceanwide Holdings reportedly acquired the property at 80 South Street along with another site at 163 Front Street for $390 million in August last year from the Howard Hughes Corporation. At that time, plans for the site called for the construction of a 820,000 square foot tower—potentially designed by SHoP Architects—with 440,000 square feet of residential space.
Despite its proximity to the South Street Seaport, 80 South Street falls outside of the Seaport Historic District.”