MIDTOWN — A vacant lot where a century-old church was razed is set to become a new hotel.
Work has begun at 325 West 33rd St.,where the Romanesque Glad Tidings Tabernacle once stood, in preparation for a Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, Curbed reported, The church was demolished in 2009 after being sold for $31 million to make way for a 250-room Cambria Suites hotel, which was stalled by the recession.
While the church, built in 1868 between Eighth and Ninth avenues, was not an official landmark, preservationists still lamented its demolition and the general influx of cheap hotels in the area.
“The area is getting riddled with cheap hotels, which are negatively impacting the historic architecture of the area,” said Simeon Bankoff, the executive director of the Historic Districts Council. “It's appalling.”
The church was first a Calvary Baptist church and later taken over by the Assemblies of God in 1914.
Church officials flirted with the idea of selling the building's air rights a few years ago, and even commissioned renderings of the church with a residential tower constructed above it, according to The Real Deal. The plans were abandoned, and the church was sold in 2008.
