Fifth Avenue Tower Threatens Historic Village District: Activists

WEST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN — Activists trying to save a 170-year-old building on Fifth Avenue said Friday that its demolition would be a slippery slope to destroying not just the village's historic district, but historic districts across the city.

Dozens of Villagers, activists and elected officials huddled in the cold across from the 14-16 Fifth Ave. building Friday morning to call on the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission to reject a plan to replace the five-story building with a 21-story tower, which would be four times the size of typical buildings on the block.

The proposal, filed late last year by Madison Realty Capital, would mean demolishing the existing landmarked building that sits in the eastern corner of the Greenwich Village Historic District, which activists said has been home to a long list of historical figures since it was build in 1848.

They worry the "travesty" of a new building would be the start of undoing the historic district's purpose of protecting historically significant buildings both in Greenwich Village and across the five boroughs.

"The point of historic districts is that we are to preserve them — this plan proposes to unravel the very law that protects some of New York's best most popular most historic areas,"said Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council.

"The Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights Douglaston, Mott Haven in the Bronx — these are all areas that should this proposal be approved are looking at utter devastation," Bankoff said.

Protesters specifically outlined the 14-16 Fifth Ave. building's previous residents as a reason to preserve it.

The building has been home to Oscar-winning actors, industrialists, investors, civil war generals and railroad tycoons since it was built by the Brevoorts, a prominent early New York family, in 1848.

(Anna Quinn/Patch)

But they also pointed to the fact that Madison Realty's proposal, despite its size, would actually cut back on the amount of housing the building offers the community.

Madison's 21-story building would replace the five-story building's 20 units — 10 of which were rent-regulated before Madison bought the building — with only 18 units likely only affordable to wealthy tenants.

"There were seniors on low incomes that were being housed here," said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "The developer is destroying all of that to replace 20 good units with 18 super-luxury units, which will only be pied-a-terre, third or fourth homes for the super-rich."

Friday's protesters also included tenants from other Madison Realty properties who told horror stories of the developers pushing out rent-regulated tenants and ignoring unsafe lead levels before foreclosing on 14 buildings in the East Village.

Elected officials urged the city not to let that happen again.

"It should be no surprise that one of New York City's worst landlords is attempting to puncture, to demolish and to destroy the intention behind the Greenwich Village Historic District," state Sen. Brad Hoylman said. "What is the point of a historic district if you can break through it with a bad actor like Madison Realty Capital?"

A spokesperson for Madison Realty would not answer specific questions about their history in the East Village or their plans for the 14-16 Fifth Ave. building, except to say that the "project has not been filed yet." Building records show an application for the new tower was filed in December.

"The owner and the project team believe that this is an elegant and appropriate new building for the Historic District and looks forward to presenting it to the [Landmarks Preservation] Commission," the company said in a statement.

(Anna Quinn/Patch)