The Upper West Side arts nonprofit campaigning to save a crumbling landmarked church building said Monday that it sent an offer to the Landmark Preservation Commission (LPC) to pay the congregation of West-Park Presbyterian Church $60,000 a month in rent for 10 years and to fund a $5 million trust to cover restoration costs.
The Center at West Park (CWP) used to call the 135-year-old West-Park Presbyterian Church home, hosting arts workshops and community theater, dance and comedy until it was ordered to vacate in 2025.
Center at West Park Board Chair Mitchell Schamroth said that the funding which CWP will provide under the terms of the proposed lease offered proof that financially, West Park Presbyterian can be saved.
“The question before the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has always been whether a reasonable alternative to demolition exists,” said Schamroth. “Today, the answer is yes. This proposal provides financial stability for the congregation, restores the landmark at private expense, and preserves an irreplaceable community institution. Demolition is not the only option.”
The offer also proposed to pay the first six months of rent, $360,000 upfront and comes alongside an additional $3 million in state funding for repairs.
West-Park Presbyterian Church on 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue applied to sell the aging and withered building to a developer for demolition and redevelopment in September of 2025 because it said it’s financially unable to keep up with repairs. But due to the site’s landmarked status, the city must approve a so-called Hardship Application to sell and knock down the historic space. Initially, the building was designated as a landmark against the wishes of the congregation in 2010.
But the church and advocates like CWP, local lawmakers and a host of famous actors have been locked in a heated dispute over the move to sell and demolish the space.
Advocates for preserving the landmark have accused the owners of West-Park Presbyterian Church of manipulating the application process and inflating financial estimates to make it appear that restoration would be too costly.
In May, the LPC met to hear from experts about the landmark’s current condition, what repairs would be needed to restore the church and whether those repairs would be financially feasible for the church’s owners. Experts disagreed about the financial feasibility of the restoration, as well as which repairs were immediately necessary.
“ When you’re doing a hardship analysis, the question becomes economic feasibility—revenue less expenses,” said Michael S. Hiller, General Council for CWP. “And what the applicant’s game here is to try to make the expenses seem so gargantuan that it can’t possibly generate a profit.”
But the church’s ownership has maintained that over the course of the building’s history, the congregation has been the sole entity funding repairs, despite promises to the contrary, and that it became financially overwhelmed, causing a significant drop in members, according to public testimony.
What’s more is that church leaders’ efforts to preserve the crumbling Romanesque Revival building completely drained its coffers to just a few hundred dollars and put the congregation into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, church representatives said. As of July 2026, the Department of Buildings’ DOB NOW portal lists more than 40 open violations and over $80,000 in civil penalties against the building.
“It is not that the building is unsafe for short term rentals with no responsibility for its upkeep,” Valerie Campbell, a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, representing the church said at a LPC hearing in March. “Rather it is that the overwhelming cost of addressing serious and ongoing building maintenance issues, far exceeds the resources of its struggling congregation,” she finished.
Church representatives did not respond to questions about whether the church would accept the lease terms offered Monday by CWP. But Actor Mark Ruffalo, the CWP and others have reportedly offered to cover repairs to the tune of millions, only for church leadership to refuse.
Executive Director for CWP, Debby Hirshman told amNewYork that the center was hopeful that offering a ten-year lease agreement which was also structured to give fast financial relief to the congregation and fund repairs would be an option everyone could live with.
“It was really important for us to be able to offer a win-win-win solution to preventing the hardship and demolition of a one of a kind NYC landmark building. It’s a win for the community to preserve this landmark, the city and West Park Presbyterian Church,” Hirshman said.
Advocates expect the LPC to rule on the hardship application soon as the official comment period ended on July 10, and only a few more hearings are scheduled for July and August.
