South Street Seaport | The New York Observer

General Growth Puts South Street Seaport Up for Sale

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:50:52 -0500

Indebted REIT General Growth Properties has hired a London-based brokerage to market the South Street Seaport, along with two other retail hubs in Boston and Baltimore.

General Growth, the nation's second-largest mall owner, had planned to redeveloped the Seaport. A large amount of debt accumulated during the real estate boom--as well as local opposition over changing the landmark--stymied those plans, which included a boutique hotel and a retail complex.

More Observer coverage of General Growth here....

Seaport Developer General Growth Refinances, Still Faces Default

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:45:54 -0500

From the Wall Street Journal this morning:

[General Growth Properties] completed $896 million of mortgage loans used to retire a $58 million bond that matured Thursday and refinance $814 million in mortgage loans maturing next year. General Growth said the loans are separate from the $900 million in debt backed by two of its malls in Las Vegas that is facing a Friday deadline. ... If no agreement is reached on those loans, which...

Clock Ticks on Seaport Developer

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:41:45 -0500

General Growth Properties reportedly has until Friday to reach an agreement regarding $900 million in debt, casting further doubt on the firm’s plans to redevelop the South Street Seaport and, to a lesser extent, its plans to take part in a $700 million mixed-use development in East Harlem.

“I guess the entire community is kind of wondering where we stand,” said Councilman Alan Gerson, whose district encompasses the seaport and who has...

Zero Hour Approaching For Severely Indebted Seaport Developer

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:27:08 -0500

Mall maker and owner General Growth Properties got the nod in the summer to redevelop the South Street Seaport with an ambitious vision that included an apartment/hotel tower, a new retail complex and a boutique hotel. In the early autumn, the city tapped General Growth to lead the development of a massive mixed-use, mixed-income complex in East Harlem.

Shortly thereafter, a supremely bad run of events walloped the publicly traded firm, including the exit of...

Not Doomed! Seaport Developer General Growth Sees Stock Jump

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:59:29 -0500

It may not be all gloom and doom for General Growth Properties after all. The developer of Pier 17 and the South Street Seaport and of a major mixed-use project on East 125th Street saw its share price jump on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg News.

The jump, driven by Pershing Square Capital acquiring 20 percent of the firm through shares and swaps, comes less than a week after a foundering General Growth hired a...

Developer of Two City Mega-Projects Hires Bankruptcy Attorney

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:22:47 -0500

General Growth, the Chicago-based developer aiming to redevelop the South Street Seaport and to build a 1.7 million-square-foot entertainment and housing complex in East Harlem, has hired a bankruptcy attorney, according to today's Wall Street Journal.

While the move does not necessarily mean the mall developer plans to declare bankruptcy, it is yet another reflection of its shaky finances. General Growth is struggling to service a staggering $27 billion in debt accrued during a...

South Street Seaport Developer General Growth Saddled With Debt, Doubts

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:25:38 -0500

Things aren’t looking all that promising for General Growth Properties’ two Manhattan mega-projects, and not just because the company is foundering so badly that it was last week delisted from the Standard & Poor’s 500.

Though let’s not kid ourselves: A corporation in such dire straights that its stock has been deemed nearly worthless doesn’t seem in the best position to move forward with either a 1.7 million-square-foot mixed-used complex on East...

Debt Could Doom South Street Seaport Developer

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:04:34 -0500

A debt load of $27 billion could doom General Growth Properties, the mall-making conglomerate that's redeveloping the South Street Seaport and leading the development of a large East Harlem project. According to the Wall Street Journal this morning, General Growth's failure to refinance or to extend $1 billion in debt due this month could throw into "substantial doubt" its ability to continue operations.

Among other debt coming due, General Growth owes by Nov. 28...

South Street Seaport Developer Replaces CEO Amid $27 B. in Debt

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:23:48 -0400

From Commercial Property News: "On the heels of suspension of dividend payments and the replacement of the company’s CFO at the beginning of October, Chicago-based REIT General Growth Properties Inc. has shaken up management and announced intentions to market certain Las Vegas properties. All of these efforts are designed to help the company survive billions of dollars in maturing debt coming due at a time when credit markets are frozen... All told, GGP’s debt...

Municipal Art Society Presents: An Anti-Seaport Tower Slideshow

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:35:22 -0400

As part of its effort to oppose the plan to redevelop South Street Seaport, the Municipal Art Society put up a slideshow yesterday on its Web site intended to illustrate how a residential tower at the site would overwhelm the historic district.

The society has come out strongly against the development, planned by General Growth Properties, which is currently being reviewed by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

From MAS President Kent Barwick, in a...

In Pushing Seaport Redo, Developer General Growth Goes Retail

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:27:55 -0400

Facing a lengthy approval process and a wary community board, developer General Growth Properties is bringing its campaign to redevelop South Street Seaport to the streets, as it unveiled a storefront exhibit on the seaport this morning.

For the exhibit, "Seaport Past & Future," General Growth brought on architect and writer James Sanders to trace the area's rich, dynamic history through five separate displays of the seaport at different time periods. The...

Seaport Developer: Toss 'Festival Marketplace' Overboard

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:31:40 -0400

Following the reveal in today’s Times of the long-awaited plans to redo Pier 17 and the South Street Seaport, we chatted with Michael McNaughton, a vice president with developers General Growth Properties, about the company’s plans for the site.

The planned redo of the site comes more than two decades after developer James Rouse, who pioneered the “festival marketplace” that helped revitalize places such as downtown Boston and Baltimore’s waterfront, installed...

Events for June 14, 2006

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 14:00:00 -0400

Tomorrow is Flag Day! A Flag Day ceremony will be held at 1pm at the South Street Seaport's Pier 17. U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez keynotes a Flag Day naturalization ceremony at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. Staten Island Beep James Molinaro hosts a ceremony celebrating Flag Day and the 231st birthday of the U.S. Army. Adolfo Carrion Jr. launches Bronx Week 2006 on the steps of the Bronx County Building. The City Council Transportation...

Down by the Water's Edge: A Meander Around Manhattan

Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:00:00 -0400

Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan, by Phillip Lopate. Crown Publishers, 421 pages, $25.95

Acclaimed essayist Phillip Lopate, who grew up in the crowded slums of Williamsburg, has long marveled at the transformation of his native city over the last half-century. In Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan , he laces up his sneakers and sets out to explore Manhattan's shoreline, the area he believes has changed the most, from "a working port, to an abandoned,...

Community Boards

Sun, 01 Dec 2002 19:00:00 -0500

Community Reluctant to Sacrifice

Park for Temporary U.N. Offices Community outrage is mounting as the United Nations Development Corporation steps up its plan to claim Robert Moses Park, on First Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets, and replace it with a 35-story building. The building is needed, according to UNDC president and chief executive Roy Goodman, to house temporary offices while the U.N.'s signature building, the 50-year-old Secretariat, undergoes an estimated five-to-10-year-long renovation. At Community Board...