A four-year fight to save an Upper West Side church may be on shaky ground after members of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission suggested the church likely qualifies for an extremely rare hardship exemption that would pave the way for it to be razed and replaced by a 20-story residential building.
At a Landmarks hearing on Aug. 4 on the hardship application by West-Park Presbyterian Church, at 86th St. and Amsterdam Ave., several commissioners and the agency’s general counsel cast doubt on the financial viability of an alternative plan put forward by a performing arts organization that previously rented space there,
Although evicted by the church a year ago, The Center at West Park wants save the 1890 landmark by leasing the house of worship and making badly needed repairs to its exterior. The struggle to save the church has galvanized community and preservation groups, local elected officials and A-listers like Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Matt Damon, Jon Hamm and Laurence Fishburne, among others.
The Center last month offered to lease the church for 10 years for $7.2 million, insisting it has the finances to fix up and maintain the decaying building and create a self-sustaining arts and community space. The Center promised to quickly repair the facade and remove the unsightly sidewalk shed that has shrouded the building the last 25 years.
But if the landmarks commission OK’s the demolition, the Presbytery of New York City pans to sell the site to developers Alchemy Properties for $33 million. The developer plans to build a 10,000-square-foot facility within the new building for the church congregation, arts and social services. According to the church’s Web site, most of the moneys would not enrich its tiny congregation of 12 members, but instead finance a social justice fund “to provide, food, health, immigrant, art and historic preservation services in all five boroughs.”
“While a portion of these (sale) proceeds will be used to repay existing debts and establish an endowment for the Church,” the site says, “an estimated $25 to $30 million will be used to establish the West Park Presbyterian Church Social Justice Fund, an endowment to be managed by the Presbytery of New York City to support the mission of its 88 congregations.”
Debby Hirshman, executive director of The Center at West Park, decried the idea the commission would ok the building’s destruction.
Due to the high bar required to prove financial hardship, in its 60-year history, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has OK’d only 13 hardship applications either to alter or demolish landmarked structures. The commission landmarked the building against the wishes of the church in 2010.
“It all becomes about dollars and cents — not about landmarking and preservation,” she said. “What is this city agency doing?”
Councilmember Gale Brewer, who represents the district and supports saving the church, said she has been told the final vote on the application will be in September. A Landmarks spokesperson said a vote has not been scheduled.
At a recent meeting, the center’s plan to save the church came under sharp scrutiny.
“The Center has found success only recently,” Landmarks Chairperson Lisa Kersavage told the hearing. “It is proposing to pay a rent that is 24 times higher than the $30,000 (a year) it was previously paying. … The church is entitled to look at the creditworthiness and track record of the Center and conclude it’s not an organization with which it would be reasonable or prudent to enter a 10-year relationship with.”
The church created the Center at West Park in 2016, tasking the nonprofit to run and maintain the building, raise funds to repair its facade and keep the rent from tenants. In return, the Center was given a very low rent of $2,600 a month.
In 2022, after the COVID pandemic, the Center had a cash flow deficit of $106,423. But by 2024 it saw a profit of $1.2 million. The turnaround came after the Center brought in Hirshman, the former executive director of the JCC at Amsterdam Ave. and 76th St., to run things in 2023.
Hirshman said the first time she saw West-Park Church’s sanctuary, renowned for its perfect acoustics, she knew it could be a viable performing arts center.
“When I walked into that space, I said, ‘You can’t replace this,’” she said.
But in 2020, the church had decided to sell to Alchemy and put the Romanesque Revival structure’s fate in the hands of the LPC commissioners.
Hirshman said the Center currently has $5 million in its building fund to fix up West-Park Church’s facade and roof. Some of this is in secured guaranteed pledges, meaning the Center gets the money if it gets the lease. Hirshman said $3 million allocated for the building’s repair by former state Assemblymember Danny O’Donnell never tapped by the church is also available.
“We’ll do all the work,” Hirshman assured. “We’ll take down the sidewalk shed.”
Kersavage did say at the outset, “The demolition of this building is inherently inappropriate.” Yet, she said, West-Park Church has “exhausted all of its resources,” having only “$600 in the bank and hundreds of thousands in debt.”
West-Park Church did not respond to requests for comment.
Should Landmarks greenlight the church’s demolition, Hirshman said an Article 78 lawsuit would be filed, challenging the decision. Also, per regulations, for 180 days after the decision, alternate buyers could come forward.