As the gateway to the South Street Seaport and the future home of a major new transit hub, Fulton Street is one of the city's more intriguing places, a fairly chaotic mixture of distinctive older architecture and a broad assortment of retailing.

An April 2005 report on revitalizing the street prepared by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the city's Department of City Planning, noted that "Fulton Street, once the premier east-west corridor downtown, has fallen on hard times and is now lacking retail diversity." "The reintroduction of Fulton and Greenwich Streets through the rebuilt World Trade Center site presents a unique opportunity to expand the benefits of rebuilding to surrounding neighborhoods." The plan calls for streetscape enhancements, retail incentives and facade restorations.

This week the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and MTA New York City Transit scaled back somewhat their plans for a new transit center on the street at Broadway that will incorporate six existing subway stations.

Last month, Community Board 1 voted unanimously to recommend that both Fulton Street and John Street be re-opened to vehicular traffic 24/7 to address congestion issues created by the current and pending construction projects. The board also unanimously recommended that the State Historic Preservation Office place the proposed Fulton-Nassau Historic District on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

Several conversion projects are underway on Fulton Street.

Scaffolding recently went up at 119 Fulton Street, a seven-story building between Williams and Nassau Streets where Daniell Real Estate Properties LLC plans to add another seven stories. When completed, the project known Fultonhaus and marketed by Shvo Marketing, will have 19 condominium apartments, many with balconies or terraces.