The iconic South Street Seaport is being put up for sale for nearly $200 million, as debt-laden owner and mall operator General Growth Properties looks to shed assets.
Sources tell The Post that the Seaport, along with Boston’s Faneuil Hall and Baltimore’s Harborplace & The Gallery, are being marketed together as the “Festival Marketplace,” though it’s likely the three sites will be purchased by different buyers.
Among the Seaport’s potential buyers are the Related Cos. and Vornado Realty Trust.
According to public documents and the marketing flyer being shown to prospective buyers by investment advisers DTZ Rockwood, the Seaport has no debt and retail sales of $598 per square foot. The brochure says the Seaport posted sales revenue of $102 million for the year ended Sept. 30.
Among its international tourist draws are Manhattan’s first Abercrombie & Fitch store, the Bodies exhibition, and the restaurants at Pier 17.
But the Seaport area has lost its mojo and needs a complete makeover for the 21st century.
General Growth had proposed big changes at the Seaport, including an 80-story tower, open-pier parkland, 500 hotel rooms, 150 apartments and an additional 500,000 square feet of retail space.
Sources say the renovation plans by SHoP Architects will be transferred along with the 285,847 square feet of existing small retail structures set generally inland along Beekman, Front and South streets and the East River.
Institutional property adviser David Monahan at DTZ Rockwood is handling the marketing for General Growth. Neither he nor an executive at General Growth returned calls for comment.
The 350,980 foot Faneuil Hall in Boston includes Quincy Marketplace and offices. It generated about $719 per foot in sales in the twelve months ending in September and will likely sell for between $150 million and $175 million per foot.
General Growth, the second-largest US mall owner, failed to reach agreement with its lenders this week on extending the maturity of $900 million in loans for property owned in Las Vegas. The company said its lenders “haven’t acted us against us” yet.
