Small Businesses Might Sell By The Seashore at New Pier 17 Mall

By Harrison Golden

This week, representatives from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation announced their support for the Howard Hughes Corporation’s newest South Street Seaport Pier 17 mall renovation plans.

The design, created by SHoP Architects, features an emerald green roof and will include a glass façade encasing the building’s current steel frame. The deck surrounding the center will contain a mixture of wood, cobblestone, and "solar bricks," which will absorb sunlight during the day and glow at night.

“This project will provide business innovation to the seaport and help Lower Manhattan keep up with the influx of people coming in,” said Brad Sonnenberg, general counsel and secretary for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

By 2015, Lower Manhattan will be home to roughly 85,000 residents and 441,000 office workers. The average household in Lower Manhattan makes $242,000 in yearly income, compared to $75,198 in the average New York City home.

Sonnenberg believes that the growth in demand will make the renovated mall a prime market for small, newly emerging businesses. Stores like Abercrombie & Fitch, J. Crew, and Bath & Body Works are current tenants of Pier 17, and he does not believe they should be welcomed into the new shopping center. Since many of these retailers can be found in multiple locations throughout the city, he says, the seaport should let smaller, more localized businesses into the 250,000-square-foot location.

“Letting these same tenants back into this new mall would be a huge regression from this beautifully designed piece of architecture,” he added. “The seaport used to be such a haven for the everyman, the hand-working, dusk-till-dawn small business owner.”

The Rouse Corporation opened Pier 17 in 1985. During its first few years of operation, the mall was widely considered a financial success. But as the 1990s neared, foot traffic slowed down, and many small businesses either relocated or went out of business.

In 2010, General Growth, who acquired the property from Rouse in 2004, filed for bankruptcy and subsequently spun off control of the building, among other real estate assets, into the Howard Hughes Corporation.

But while many of Pier 17’s floors are filled with the larger, better-known retailers, some members of Community Board 1 remain faithful that the new corporation’s redesign will feature the city’s smaller businesses as tenants.

"Of course on the outside, it is a fantastic makeover from what is there now," said Vera Sung, a board member. “But we want this new mall to reflect that very modern and fresh look in more ways than meets the eye.”