BATTERY PARK CITY — Less than 10 months after being appointed, the president and chief operating officer of the Battery Park City Authority, Demetrios Boutris, resigned Friday, the authority confirmed.
The BPCA declined to say why Boutris stepped down. Boutris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Boutris, a Harvard-educated lawyer who founded a business and policy advisement group, Boutris Group, Inc., took over from embattled BPCA president Gayle Horwitz last October.
Horwitz resigned last year amid an ongoing controversy over the long-delayed opening of the $55 million Asphalt Green community center. The center, which suffered further delays thanks to Hurricane Sandy damage, finally opened this summer.
Robert Serpico, the authority’s current chief financial officer, will become interim president and COO, while continuing to hold his CFO position, according to a letter sent to BPCA and Battery Park City Conservancy staff from BPCA chairman Dennis Mehiel.
The BPCA will continue to search for a new president in the coming weeks, Mehiel said in his statement.
"We wish him [Boutris] all the best in his future endeavors, and thank him for his service to the Authority," Mehiel said in his letter.
