Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Arun Bhatia reps listen, but make no promises about the future of 35 Cooper Square


Yesterday afternoon, developer Arun Bhatia met with concerned members of the community about the fate of 35 Cooper Square. It was an invite-only meeting closed to the media.

I asked Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, one of community members slated to speak, for his quick take on hour-long discussion with Arun Bhatia representatives:

They expressed openness to considering our suggestions that they explore ways of integrating 35 Cooper into a development on the site, but made no promises. There are some considerable financial and physical hurdles that would have to be overcome. They said they would think about it and get back to us. They gave no details as to what they are currently planning.

Previously.

DNAinfo has more here.... The report from The Local East Village is here.

4 comments:

Lisa said...

Translation: It's like when you were a kid and you wanted to do something really badly and you begged your parents and they said "We'll see" and you knew automatically you didn't stand a chance. Goodbye, 35 Cooper Square.

Ken from Ken's Kitchen said...

According to developer Bhatia's website, he does two things in Manhattan, luxury condos and dorms. That's what's coming to 35 Cooper Square and I don't see how the current structure survives.

Bowery Boogie said...

Had something in mind to say here, but Lisa put it perfectly! Just delaying the inevitable at this point.

Laura Goggin Photography said...

@Ken - hmm, that makes me think of the church/dorm on E 12th St...I wonder if something similar could happen here where the facade (or some replica of it) gets 'preserved' purely for decoration.