Construction Workers, Preservationists Join Forces Against Millennial Hotel

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Over 100 activists, historic preservationists, and construction workers protested on E. 11th Street in the East Village Wednesday evening against the demolition of five historic brownstones to make way for a hotel targeted toward millennials.

Members of Metallic Lathers Reinforcing Ironworkers and LiUNA Local 78 labor union, which represents construction workers, partnered with the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation (GVSHP) and local elected officials to protest the future Marriott hotel.

All organizations at the protest took issue with the fact that five buildings with 76 apartment units are being destroyed for a hotel built by the developer, the Lightstone Group, whose CEO, David Lichtenstein, is known to be cronies with Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Preservationists are furious with the loss of Old Law Tenement buildings built from 1887 to 1892.

The GVSHP mobilized hundreds of people to write letters and emails to the mayor calling on him to halt the demolitions, Andrew Berman, GVSHP executive director, told Patch. Preservationists are now hoping that the mayor will "reach out to his campaign contributor and political ally David Lichtenstein and ask him to change plans and preserve the buildings. Or both," Berman said.

Labor unions and construction workers take issue with the Lightstone Group for what they said were bad practices by the developer, such as using contractors with a history of safety violations and worker exploitation.

"The hotel world tends to run on contractors that do not provide safety and training to their workers, or middle-class wages," Melissa Shetler, director of organizing at the LiUNA Local 78 labor union, told Patch.

"Our assumption is that they're going to do what they've been doing. We see no indication of them changing their behavior," Shetler said.

The demolitions are meant to clear out land for a new Marriott branch targeted at millennials called Moxy. More than 100 preservationists protested in August against the demolitions, saying the Landmarks Preservation Commission had designated the buildings as eligible to be historic landmarks in 2008, and changed its mind just eight years later, in their opinion a clear sign of corruption.

Construction workers have been emptying out the buildings for the past few months to make way for their demolition in the next coming month or so. There were signs on the front doors of the buildings on Wednesday that said they were undergoing asbestos abatement.

Photo credit: Marc Torrence/Patch, GVSHP