Continuing our Turkey Week list of stalled projects is Seaport Residences, a 60-story residential skyscraper at 161 Maiden Lane along the border of Lower Manhattan’s Financial District and the South Street Seaport District. Designed by Hill West Architects and developed by Fortis Property Group, the 670-foot-tall tower, originally dubbed One Seaport, was planned to span 200,000 square feet and yield 80 condominium units. The property stands on a narrow rectangular lot bound by South Street and Maiden Lane, directly across from FDR Drive and the East River.
Recent photos show the skyscraper unchanged since 2019, when work stalled indefinitely. The topped-out reinforced concrete superstructure stands largely exposed, with the glass curtain wall installed in disjoined sections across the slender eastern elevation and lower levels of the broad southern face. Like the nearby 45 Park Place, the only addition during Seaport Residences’ half decade of inactivity is a graffiti tag near the pinnacle on its northern profile, a glaring emblem of the project’s neglected state.
Photo by Michael Young
Photo by Michael Young
Photo by Michael Young
Photo by Michael Young
The project was beset with problems and delays from as early as 2017, when the Department of Buildings issued ten code violations against the building’s original general contractor Pizzarotti. Then, in September of that year, an employee of the concrete subcontractor fell to his death from the 29th floor. Additional stoppages followed in 2018, including one from a mishap that resulted in concrete being poured onto the street from the 34th story.
In 2019, the project halted once more over a high-profile dispute between Fotis and Pizzarotti, which by then had been dismissed as contractor, involving the disclosure that the superstructure was leaning three inches to the north. After an ensuing legal spat, the structure was deemed safe and work resumed briefly under the leadership of a new general contractor, Ray Builders. However, our construction update in September 2020 revealed that sections of the glass curtain wall had been removed, and no progress has occurred on the exterior since then.
Fortis Property Group originally acquired the property for $64 million and was anticipating a condominium sellout of $272 million. It still remains unclear if work on Seaport Residences will ever resume.
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A lean of 3”…how was that corrected?
Just add some cardboard or folded paper under the sign that is leaning and that should sturdy it up.
Unclear if it’s ever going to finish? Seriously?
Of course it’ll finish. It’ll default, sell at a deep discount, and be finished at more realistic prices or as a rental. Best example of that? The Geary building on Spruce St a few blocks away. Started as a luxury condo, delayed due to the crash of 08, developer renegotiated the labor rates with the unions building it, equipped it with more ordinary interiors, and it’s a very successful rental.
That’s the way markets work.
So NYC faces a daunting housing supply shortage and this building will sit forever half built? Did I read that right?
If you didn’t know the story, this forever ‘stalled’ tower gives the skyline an in-progress dynamic 😀
Unless the 3″ lean can somehow be corrected, and experience with similar problems at the Millennium Tower in San Francisco shows this will be very hard and expensive, the building needs to be torn down. Maybe a future developer of the site could get it for free, or even subsidized to pay for the demolition. Who will pay for that will be the ultimate decision of the courts, but no building this size in this location can be allowed to lean like that.
My 1957 co-op was built on 12 ft. of fill, 3 ft. of “bog,” and an undetermined depth of compacted sand and gravel. The bog has continued to compress leading to subsidence. The building is on wooden pilings and has not moved. However, things directly on the soil have shifted over the years. These include the garage floor, drain pipes, and areas of the lawn.
There is likely no reason to think the Maiden Lane building will stabilize if it is made heavier.
The land beneath is late 18th century ‘landfill.’ In fact, it is landfill from South Street to Water Street, Water Street being the original shoreline.
As my sister likes to say when things like this happen, “Someone be smokin'”.
Perhaps developers need to get their heads out of their “butts.”