Privately owned developer Tavros just closed on its long-awaited purchase of the empty one-acre site at 250 Water St. for a lower price than previously announced — and it plans a big increase in the number of rental apartments the mixed-use project will have.
Tavros paid $143 million, or less than the $150.5 million reported last summer and even farther below the $180 million that previous owner Howard Hughes Corp. paid in 2018. JLL brokered the transaction.
More important for Lower Manhattan, the new plan for 250 Water St. will have 600 rental units compared with 400 previously planned by HHC spinoff Seaport Entertainment Group. Some 25% of them will be affordable of which 80% will be “deeply” affordable, Tavros said.
The company plans to use the facade and massing previously drawn up by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill — but Fogarty Finger has been tapped as the new design architect and architect of record.
The building’s taller portion will be set on a five-story base with ground-floor retail and other commercial uses. The site will also have landscaped public space.
SEG, like HHC, is controlled by Bill Ackman. SEG which operates nearby Pier 17 and other Seaport elements, was spun off from HHC in 2024.
Nicholas Silvers, a founding partner of Tavros, said, “The Seaport is one of the most historically significant locations in New York City and it has evolved a dynamic residential neighborhood We are thrilled to help carry forward a project that will have a meaningful impact on Manhattan for decades to come.”
It wasn’t known when ground will be broken.
