South Street Seaport’s Pier 17 retail mall, which has been commercially adrift for years, has a shipshape, glass-wrapped future in store.
Owner Howard Hughes Corp. plans to replace the boxy, near-windowless three-level shopping complex with a shimmering, transparent one topped by a rooftop park and designed by architectural firm SHoP. The proposal was unveiled last night at a Community Board 1 meeting.
Meanwhile, sources told The Post, publicly traded Howard Hughes is collaborating with New York’s Crown Retail Services, controlled by the Chera family, to bring in new tenants and consult on mall management.
“Pier 17 has been a dud almost since it opened, and bringing in Crown shows that Hughes is serious about making it attractive to New Yorkers, not just tourists,” a source said.
The new building would occupy almost the same footprint as the old Pier 17. It requires city approvals including from the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Crown Retail Services, a division of Crown Acquisitions, will find new tenants for the site and advise Hughes on managing the complex, sources said.
Crown owns and/or manages 10 million square feet of retail in the US, about 60 percent of it in New York. It famously repositioned the storefront condominium of 666 Fifth Ave., luring Zara, Hollister, Uniqlo and Swatch to replace previous tenants paying below-market rents. The 90,000-square-foot retail bloc is now valued at $1 billion.
Sources said the redesigned pier will have 250,000 square feet of selling space, slightly more than the current total.
But where the existing pier resembles a barn, its replacement will be transparent and offer shoppers a sweeping view of the East River.
Asking rents are expected to rival prime space in neighborhoods like SoHo — from $300 a square foot and up.
Pier 17 was opened in 1985 by the Rouse Corp. Although it was popular at first, many tenants moved away, complaining of slow foot traffic. Today much of its floor space is taken up by souvenir and T-shirt stands. However, sources said some current Pier tenants — J. Crew, Victoria’s Secret and Express — do well there and want to return to the new facility.
In a Feb. 29 letter to shareholders, Howard Hughes CEO David R. Weinreb said the company needed to finalize an agreement with the city’s Economic Development Corp. regarding the pier by June 30.
A rep for Howard Hughes confirmed the redesign but said he knew nothing about Crown’s involvement. Calls to Crown were not returned.