Preservationists are lamenting the pending demolition of a row tenement buildings in the East Village, claiming that the city ignored requests to designate the area a historic district.
Community groups sent a letter to the Landmarks Preservation Committee in June asking that it consider designating a stretch of 11th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues as a historic district, DNAinfo reported. The request came after the groups learned that the Lightstone Group [TRDataCustom] planned to demolish 112-120 11th Street to make way for a 300-key hotel. The groups argue that their request went ignored, and now that the city’s Department of Buildings has approved a demolition permit for the property, the pre-war buildings are goners.
The site of the future hotel was part of a six-building portfolio that Lightstone acquired in April for $127 million. The hotel will be branded as a Marriott International’s Moxy Hotel, as part of the developers plans to bring four Moxy Hotels to Manhattan, one to Brooklyn and another to Los Angeles. In 2015, the company said it planned to spend $1 billion to develop these hotels. [DNAinfo] — Kathryn Brenzel