Luxury Tower Set For Greenwich Village After Demolition Approved

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — The Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday approved the demolition of two five-story apartment buildings in Greenwich Village that have stood in the neighborhood for 170 years.

The two buildings at 14-16 Fifth Avenue will be demolished to free up space for a controversial 213-foot-tall luxury condo tower from Madison Realty Capital that will be among the tallest in the area and surrounding historic district.

The commission approved the demolition application by a single vote, with a six to five tally.

The decision on Tuesday was the conclusion of a four-year battle between preservationists and developers over the demolition of the two buildings. The luxury-tower project was first announced in 2017, immediately inciting a campaign from the community to save the two buildings that revolved around the history of the 170-year-old structure as being significant enough to protect.

The townhouses at 14-16 Fifth Avenue were constructed in 1848, but a renovation around 1925 combined the houses into a single-family home and significantly changed the exterior of the building.

The debate around whether to preserve the building has centered around the importance of its residents over the decades, the magnitude of historical events that have taken place within the property, and if the townhouse has kept enough of its original design and architecture.

While members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission were relatively split on the issue, enough members shared the opinion that the buildings were heavily altered enough to have lost "the integrity to their period of significance."

The proposed tower of the size has shrunk from the original 241 feet tall proposal to the approved 213 feet tall on Tuesday.

“It’s incredibly disappointing that the Landmarks Preservation Commission would approve demolition of a landmarked 170-year-old structure connected to some of the most important figures in New York and American history," said the community organization Village Preservation. "And why? For a high-rise of third or fourth homes for the super-rich that will actually contain fewer units of housing than the modest five-story structure it’s replacing, which was emptied of its rent-stabilized long-term tenants to make this project possible."

Andrew Berman, the executive director of Village Preservation, has written the 14-16 Fifth Avenue was home to "Civil War generals, Gold Rush writers, Oscar-winning actors, railroad magnates, pioneering industrialists, inventors, and politicians."

It is unclear when the demolition construction of the Greenwich Village property will begin.

You can read the full approved proposal for the demolition of 14-16 Fifth Avenue here.

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