Downtown ready for retail revolution.

With several projects in the works, Lower Manhattan's retail landscape should see some major changes in 2006.

General Growth Properties, which acquired South Street Seaport 14 months ago from the Rouse Company, has hired architectural planners, Beyer Blinder Belle, to help evaluate the property and "maximize its retail potential."

Brookfield Properties, owner of the World Financial Center, is considering expanding the retail space there to up to 450,000 s/f.

And the Port Authority is pressing ahead with plans for 200,000 s/f of retail in the World Trade Center transportation hub and 375,000 s/f of retail space on Church Street that could include an enclosed pedestrian galleria, similar to the Winter Garden in Battery Park City.

South Street Seaport, meanwhile, is being positioned as an anchor to the Fulton Street Corridor connection plan that will link the East River Waterfront to the new World Trade Center site.

Downtown watchers believe the developments will help reverse the fortunes of the downtown market and help it regain it's status as a shopping mecca.

"For downtown in general, it's positive reinforcement for what we know will be a spectacular market, sooner, rather than later," said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail sales and leasing at prudential Douglas Elliman.

"With Brookfield capturing the market, we have momentum here. It will be now what it was in 1999, when uptown goes downtown to shop."

Added Greg Altman, executive vice president and principal of Newmark Knight Frank Retail, "The more retail you bring in, the more successful the area will be. People [downtown] will have a ready shopping district."

While General Growth has yet to release detailed plans for it's retail make-over at South Street Seaport, Michael DeCheser, managing director of the downtown market at Massey Knakal, said the plan will likely consist of cultural, retail, hotel and residential components.

The current property consists of just under 300,000 s/f of space leased to a combination of both permanent national tenants and local specialist retailers.

When it bought the site, General also acquired the opportunity to make use of the space left vacant last summer when the Fulton Fish Market relocated to Hunt's Point in the Bronx. The exact square footage for the fish market area won't be known until the retail study is complete.

General Growth's Michael McNaughton, vice president of asset management in the Northeast, hopes the new plan will transform the seaport into a destination for all New Yorkers, not just tourists.

"We see the site having a world class location and it should be treated as such," he said. "We are evaluating opportunities to enhance the project in a number of different ways and view the site as not on the edge of lower Manhattan, but really as a focal point of all New York."

The existing retail in the area is also in transition, with a general shift towards shops and services that cater to the growing residential sector in South Street Seaport area.

"The seaport has been primarily geared toward tourists. Over the past couple of years, owners have recognized Lower Manhattan as having well over 3,000 workers and as the fastest growing residential district in New York City," said Andrew Flamm, assistant vice president for economic development of the Alliance for Downtown New York. "The two markets have not been as well reached as they could be."

Both DeCheser and McNaughton are optimistic about plans to bring in cultural components to the area as well. In fact, the Soho-based Drawing Center, a venue for contemporary and historical drawing exhibitions, is considering building a new 40,000 s/f structure at one of the abandoned fish market sites.

The Fulton Street Corridor now represents the single largest opportunity for street level storefront space downtown. The development of the 95-acre strip of Fulton Street, which is being spearheaded by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the City, calls for a better pedestrian environment and bolstered street-oriented retail.

A report issued in April 2005 by the LMDC and the city wants more mixed-use development on the street, with sites planned at Southbridge, St. Margaret's and the Water Street Triangle. "Slowly but surely, people are recognizing the tremendous amount of unmet retail demand in lower Manhattan," said Flamm. "We've found an unmet demand of $1.4 billion annually."

He added that people from commercial and residential perspectives are quicker to make a commitment to the downtown area, with retail following that market once it's more established.

"There are encouraging signs of retail activity in stand alone locations, especially high profile and high-end retail," he said.

"It's the beginning of a trend of people recognizing untapped spending potential here. People can really take advantage of the markets that exist."

Hickey Freeman, a high-end men's store, and BMW opened up on Broadway last summer. A Whole Foods is set to open at 105 Chambers Street in the near future.