PROSPECT HEIGHTS — As workers gut the Green Point Savings Bank building on Washington Avenue to make way for a new condominium project, locals have a message for its developers: don’t demolish it.
More than 200 residents have signed a petition to save the 1928 Prospect Heights building, bought for $6.5 million last year by developers at Slate Property Group who filed plans for a 14-story residential building on the property last summer.
Since then, various neighborhood groups pushed the Landmarks Preservation Commission to landmark the distinctive neo-Classical building at 856 Washington Ave., but to no avail; in a decision last fall, the LPC said the bank “does not merit” landmark consideration.
But the author of the recent petition hasn’t given up just yet.
Prospect Heights resident Scott Watson, an actor and self-described architecture fan, wrote the Change.org petition right away when he heard about the plans to demolish the Green Point bank — most recently used as a branch of Capital One — located around the corner from his St. Johns Place home.
“When Capital One moved out of the bank, I thought ‘There’s no way that they could possibly tear down this amazing marble bank and make condos. That would never happen to a building like this.’ And then when I found out … I tried to do whatever I could to stop it,” he said.
Workers gut the interior of the former Green Point Savings Bank building at 856 Washington Ave. in Prospect Heights. (Photo credit: Raul Rothblatt)
The first step was creating the online petition, he said. And now, Watson is reaching out to local elected officials, area activists and anyone else who can help save the bank.
“We’ve seen so many buildings just go,” he said of Prospect Heights. “There really is no limit to what the developers can tear down at this point.”
For the bank, it’s unclear what, exactly, will be torn down — and by whom. Two demolition permits have been filed with the city at 856 Washington Ave., one for a full demolition to remove the entire building and another filed more recently for a structural, or interior, demolition only.
Slate, working through a company named "856 Washingon Owner LLC," is listed on the deed for the building and has filed work permits there, public records show. But two other development groups, Valyrian Capital and the Daten Group, are reportedly involved with the project, as well; Valyrian, using the same LLC as Slate, is listed on a mortgage for the property and some construction documents.
A spokeswoman for Slate said the company was not available to comment on the project. Multiple inquiries to Valyrian and Daten were not returned.
Meanwhile, construction workers at the bank building have been hauling out the interior of the structure in recent weeks and permits to put sidewalk sheds around the property were approved by the city in late February, Department of Buildings records show.
Though Watson’s online petition calls for saving the whole bank, he said he “can live with” a design that saves the building's facade, in particular.
“I understand that a giant bank building is not necessarily the most useful space, but the facade is historic,” he said. “To tear it down is just devastating.”
City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo, who represents Prospect Heights and was named, along with the mayor and borough president, on Watson's petition, said in a statement she understands "the frustration of the community" surrounding the demolition of the bank, which she describes as "a staple in the neighborhood."
"It is unfortunate that the Landmarks Preservation Commission did not see fit to provide the necessary designation that would preserve the Green Point Savings Bank," she said. "I would like to see the Commission rethink its decision."
