A developer’s plan to turn the West Side Tennis Club’s historic stadium into condominium units has incited some critics to look into getting landmark status for the site, according to the Wall Street Journal. The 15,000-seat Forest Hills stadium, which once hosted the U.S. Open and concerts by the Beatles, Frank Sinatra and Jimi Hendrix, is slated for a $9 million overhaul that would replace its interior with 75 luxury condos but keep its façade and arches intact, under a proposal by Cord Meyer Development. The company also said it would pay $750,000 for a permanent structure over the club’s clay tennis courts that would allow for their use year-round. Some local officials, including U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, who lives nearby, and City Council member Karen Koslowitz, have submitted a letter to the Landmarks Preservation Commission asking for a designation that would prevent such changes to the structure. Still, at a meeting Tuesday night when the design plans were unveiled, most members of the tennis club agreed that some kind of change was necessary for the stadium, which has sat empty and neglected for years, even if they didn’t support the condo proposal. A vote by club members — the proposal needs two-thirds to pass — has been pushed back to Sept. 23. Following that vote, the plan would need final approval from the Forest Hills Gardens Corp. [WSJ]

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70 Broad Street

How much would you pay for peace of mind? A five-story meditation center at 70 Broad Street is now for sale. The price tag? $45 million. The landmarked, neoclassical building, built in 1908 by the American Bank Note Company, is currently owned and occupied by the Global Country of World Peace, a non-profit organization founded in the 1990s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who introduced Transcendental Meditation in the 1950s. The technique became wildly popular in the 1960s and 70s, attracting followers like the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Jane Fonda. The group, which has centers called “Maharishi Peace Palaces” all over the world, purchased the stately granite building from developer Tony Goldman for $5.5 million in 2004, according to city records.

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