City Mulls Landmark Status for Village Buildings

The city will consider designating five East Village buildings as landmarks tomorrow, possibly adding development restrictions on the properties as new hotels and condominiums sprout up in the surrounding neighborhood. The five buildings — the concert house of Webster Hall, a former bathhouse on 11th Street, a Hungarian synagogue, a bank on Avenue C, a former young women's shelter, and a former biscuit factory — were constructed between 1886 and the late 1920s.

Their possible designation comes at a time when preservationists are pushing the Bloomberg administration to add restrictions on development to the East Village, both by changing zoning regulations and adding landmark or historic district status to many buildings in the area.

A one-time magnet for working-class immigrants from across the globe, the area has been witnessing a renaissance in the past 15 years, with streets such as the Bowery, long viewed as a skid row, attracting high-end retailers and boutique hotels.

The push for zoning changes and landmark designations, which have drawn ire from developers, are a response to the increasing real estate pressures on the neighborhood, preservationists say.

"We've definitely, in general, stressed to the LPC that the East Village needs more landmarking protections," the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Andrew Berman, said of talks with the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

"There's incredible real estate pressure on the neighborhood," Mr. Berman said. "Very little of it has been recognized by landmark protection."

Tomorrow will be a busy day for the Landmarks Preservation Commission, as the agency is slated to vote to designate two historic districts and seven individual landmarks, in addition to holding the hearings on the five East Village structures.

The Brooklyn neighborhood of DUMBO, where land values have soared in recent years as the former industrial hub has turned to condominiums, and the immediate area around the Eberhard Pencil Factory in Greenpoint, would mark the fourth and fifth historic districts to be designated this year by the city.

The City Council is expected today to approve the historic district designation of Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, which was designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission earlier this year.