NOHO — The building at the northeast corner of Bleecker and Lafayette streets has spent more than 30 years as the city's "Peace Pentagon."
Known as a hub of New York's social justice movement, the aging building at 339 Lafayette St. is home to more than a dozen leftist nonprofits.
But now plans are afoot to turn the political landmark into condos.
Its owner, the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, plans to determine its future by late spring, board chair Peter Muste said in a recent interview.
"We've included a range of options, including selling the building, developing it into condos and redeveloping it ourselves, together with a developer," Muste said. "If we sell the building, we would all have to move."
Groups including the Granny Peace Brigade, the Socialist Party USA and the War Resisters League have low-cost office space on the second and third floors of the Muste Building.
The Muste Institute, which is named after the late civil rights and anti-war activist A.J. Muste, bought the building in 1978 and uses income from the storefronts on the building's ground-floor to defray the cost of rent, according to its website.
Peter Muste said that while the building has been an important center for the peace movement, continuing support for the work they do is what's most important.
"Personally, I want to see a [plan] that allows us all to do the program work we do," he said.
Deedee Halleck, founder of the alternative media network Paper Tiger Television, said she would like to see the building's tenants be able to stay.
"I think it's important to keep this site," said Halleck, whose group has been located on the third floor of the Muste Building since 1982.
"It would be great to make sure there's a visible symbol of the peace movement in the city."
Brian Drolet, director of the grassroots satellite network Deep Dish TV, said the loss of the building would be a blow to the peace movement.
"This building has been an invaluable resource to the New York social justice community over the years," he said, noting that Deep Dish had been in the "Peace Pentagon" for more than 20 years.
Real estate interests have edged out groups that used to find it easier to pay city rents, he said.
"There really are very few places in New York City now where people can meet, work and collaborate with other groups," he added.
