From AM-NY:New Yorkers will have one last summer to enjoy the South Street Seaport they’ve visited for years.
Ravaged by Superstorm Sandy, dozens of Seaport businesses are still closed, and those that were able to stay open continue to suffer, thanks to dwindling foot-traffic and a depressed aura that’s stayed since the October disaster.
Further still, the biggest transformation will come this fall, when Pier 17, known for its restaurants, shops and breathtaking waterfront view, will be torn down by the Howard Hughes Corporation, which owns the lease on the property, to make way for a glassy new complex in 2015, complete with larger stores and a green roof. There’s even a talk of a first-class hotel and apartment buildings later on.
Pier 17 businesses were supposed to be out this week, but City Council late last month granted them one last summer up to Sept. 9.
Of 92 tenants in the Hughes' directory for the Seaport, 35 are closed. All Hughes tenants on Fulton and Front streets, including chains like the Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch, are still shuttered.
South Street Seaport Museum, though it reopened in December, is still crippled from water damage, and some galleries in its main location will close this month for roughly two years to repair heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, the museum's general manager Jerry Gallagher said.
5 comments:
Like most things in New York, a renovation for this area is long overdue. The place was hot in the 70s and very early 80s. Nuff said.
The surrounding area never recovered from 9/11 and seaport was already in decline. It's been a long time coming.
No great loss here I hated the place.
Even before 911 it was crap. You couldn't get dropped off by boat or even buy space to tie up. (some seaport)
The cheapest quick thing to eat was lousy $3.50 re-heated dried up pizza slices. Tourists EVERYWHERE walking 6 abroad buying $60 pens at Sharper Image.
This was pre-911, I never went back.
The East Village, Brooklyn heights, Staten Island Ferry even Bushwick on a good summer night is far more interesting.
And how much tourist revenue is being lost daily?
Oh well, they can always visit...LOL...Flushing instead.
Contact BID director Dian Yu for an itinerary of exciting things to do in this far away downtown dump.
Floo-shing...where the elite meet to eat mystery meat!
My summer reverie.
With a cool $6 super size shake in hand--I could sit outside on the rear deck of Pier 17's food court (when there was a lounge chair available) and nurse it for a long time--while doing sketches of the passing river traffic.
The Gothic arches of the Brooklyn Bridge loomed romantically in the background, as tugboats passed beneath it.
Sigh! It was like being aboard a luxury liner.
Then I had to make my way back down (through throngs of people)--without a pilot boat from the Queen Mary--to transport me dockside.
The South Street Seaport was a very good idea.
Then, unfortunately, the real estate industry killed it off, slowly. Greed was their assassin.
All of those uniquely original shops were replaced by national retailers who could afford the mega-rents.
What a downer!
I hope something could be salvaged of the original concept.
Baltimore did wonders with their old harbor.
In NYC everything seems to go to pot because of rent gouging landlords.
Sad--but that ship looks like it ran aground.
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