General Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust based in Chicago, yesterday announced it had hired DTZ Rockwood LLC to market several of its major retail properties that it had acquired in 2004 from the Rouse Company including the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan, Faneuil Hall in Boston and Harborplace in Baltimore.

The company is the second largest owner of shopping malls in the United States, but it is saddled with about $27 billion in debts and has seen the value of its shares collapse dramatically this year.

It had commissioned SHoP Architects, which designed the small but very impressive Porter House residential project on Ninth Avenue and 15th Street in Chelsea, to plan a major redevelopment of the seaport that included relocating the "Tin" Building at the northern end of the complex that formerly housed the famous Fulton Fish Market to a location near the eastern edge of the property at Pier 17. Much of the "Tin" Building was destroyed in a 1995 fire and the industrial-shed-style building was famous primarily for its fishmongers.

The GGP proposal also calls for a 42-story hotel and condominium apartment tower to replace the 1907 "Tin" Building with a facade resembling a fishnet and a cluster of new low-rise structures to replace the other existing structures on Pier 17. The proposed mixed-use tower is outside of the official South Street Seaport Historic District.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing last month on its Seaport proposal and several commissioners said they did not like its scale and plan to relocate the Tin Building, but not vote was taken.

SHoP is also designing the East River Waterfront Plan for the city and has designed the very handsome Rector Street Bridge at Battery Park.

Julie Menin, the chairperson of Community Board 1, had told General Growth that that the community was facing "a real crisis" and was extremely interested in amenities such as a school and a community center. "Before we can even get to the issue of height, this community would have to see significant infrastructure improvement," she said.

General Growth informed Community Board 1 that it was amenable to including a school facility and/or community center at the site and the board requested that the commission not take a vote on the proposal until it can vote on its own resolution.

Prior to the commission's meeting, some members of the Municipal Art Society held a press conference to protest against approval of the GGP plan on the grounds that it would set a bad preservation precedent.

The Historic Districts Council also argued that "putting the Tin Building alone on the edge of a pier is not putting it into context," adding that "While the Pier 17 mall may not be universally loved, it was approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission as an appropriate addition to the district." It was designed in 1983 by Benjamin C. Thompson who was well-known for his "Festival Marketplace" designs."

Faneuil Hall and Harborplace and the Seaport are the country's most famous "festival marketplaces" that combine historic sites and shopping malls. The announcement of the marketing of these properties included no sale price but does include the redevelopment plans for the Seaport.

General Growth owns Watertower Place in Chicago and numerous other major mixed-use developments across the country.

It was also designated this year as the lead developer with Archstone Smith of a 1.7-million square foot, mixed-use, mixed-income complex in East Harlem on a site between 125th and 127th Streets and Third and Second Avenues. The status of that project is not now clear and recently plans were dropped to develop a major commercial building known as Harlem Park at 125th Street and Park Avenue by another developer.