Lower Manhattan’s most closely-watched, once-stalled development site is “fit” to rise.
Chelsea Piers Fitness will launch a five-story, 76,000-square-foot health and wellness facility at 250 Water St., the one-acre empty lot that developer Tavros bought from Seaport Entertainment Group last year, The Post has learned.
The lease is the first of any kind for the ambitious project, which is scheduled to break ground next winter. It will boast 600 apartments, 25% of which are earmarked as “affordable,” as well as commercial uses and abundant public outdoor space.
Atlantic Retail will handle leasing for 35,000 square feet of ground-floor, high-ceiling store space.
The planned development will eliminate what has long been a blight on Downtown’s East River side.
Tavros and Atlas Capital bought the land for $150 million in July. Howard Hughes Corp., which owned the adjacent Seaport, also owned 250 Water St. for years. It was stymied trying to build anything as multiple lawsuits — mainly instigated by local residents who didn’t want to lose their views — bogged things down.
HHC ultimately prevailed in court and hired SOM to design the project’s facade and massing plan. But SEG, which was spun off from HHC in 2024, decided to sell the ground, instead. Pershing Square Capital head Bill Ackman is a large shareholder in both HHC and SEG but the companies say he has no active role in decision-making.
Tavros intends to use the basic SOM plan but has also tapped the Fogarty Finger firm to be the design architect and architect of record.
Tavros partner Colin Rankowitz said the Chelsea Piers signing fulfills the developer’s “vision to deliver a complete neighborhood asset” with a “best-in-class fitness community destination.”’
Chelsea Piers Fitness CEO and co-founder David Tewksbury said the “expansive” new location “will be full of light,” with “beautiful indoor and outdoors spaces as well as a new home for our best-in-class fitness programming.”
Privately owned Tavros is the development partner with Charney Companies in a 55-story condo tower in Long Island City and the five-building Gowanus Wharf campus in Brooklyn. It’s also behind 50 Ninth Avenue in the Meatpacking District, home to Rolls-Royce’s luxury showroom.
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