LPC rejects plan to demolish, rebuild S.W. Management 1875 SoHo tenement

The city’s Landmark Preservation Commission rejected a redevelopment proposal made on behalf of S.W. Management, the landlord of the subject building 139 Thompson Street in SoHo, Manhattan, to demolish and then rebuild the 19-unit, 1875 tenement building. The commission made the decision at a hearing on April 21, 2026, in Manhattan.

According to commissioner Michael Goldblum, “The application is to demolish the existing building and reconstruct the historic front facade as part of a new building.” [1:09:10]

The commission formally took a “no action” position on the application, meaning the owner can refile a proposal, but during the hearing the commissioners in their comments said they rejected the evidence that the building needed to be demolished, and said the facade could be preserved.

The hearing for 139 Thompson Street, a contributing 1875 Neo-Greek style tenement, centered on a disagreement pitting preservation against engineering necessity, revolving around the condition of its historic front facade.

Richard Unterthiner, a principal at EDG Architecture + Engineering, introduced the application to demolish the building and reconstruct the facade, grounding the decision in a commitment to “life safety and public responsibility”. The applicant’s primary technical justification rested on a forensic analysis of the street-front brick. Christine Loche, a firm principal, detailed a survey of the 3,780 facade bricks. Loche concluded that deterioration was “systemic and present across all floors,” finding that 3,024 units—approximately 80% of the facade—were defective. She argued that per the NYC Building Code, masonry units that are not “whole, sound, and free of defects” cannot be reused, concluding that the street elevation could not safely remain in place.1

The structural engineer, Geoff Smith, a vice president at EDG, emphasized that interior joists were spanning the full width of the building without adequate support, citing high stress levels on some joists.

This analysis was immediately challenged by Donald Friedman, Principal at Old Structures Engineering, the commission’s consulting engineer. Friedman argued that the front facade is non-structural, only carrying its own weight. He scrutinized the alleged defects, stating that only “one or two of them looked like they might be serious and the rest were ordinary conditions”. For example, he dismissed “surface crazing on a hard-burned brick” as “not a longevity issue”. Friedman also dismissed the extreme structural stress claims as a “huge red flag in structural analysis when you come up with an answer that doesn’t match reality,” arguing that the central wall would function as a bearing wall under normal load. He asserted that standard repairs like repointing and pinning the north wall, and sistering the interior joists, were feasible and would avoid triggering requirements for total reconstruction under new building code.

The ensuing public testimony was vehemently opposed to demolition. Council Member Christopher Marte, Chair of the Subcommittee on Landmarks, called the application a “clear manipulation of landmarks laws and a disgraceful attempt to destroy a piece of New York City’s history through a thin veil of self-inflicted harm.”

Chenault Spence, Chair of Community Board 2 Manhattan, agreed, asserting, “we know demolition by neglect when we see it here.”

Commissioners ultimately found the justification for total demolition unconvincing. Commissioner Goldblum noted that the applicant’s path to demolition, which necessitated facade replacement, was undermined by Mr. Friedman’s “repair-oriented approach.”

Commissioner Chen said that demolition of a contributing building requires a “higher threshold,” which had not been met

Vice Chair Angie Master delivered the final LPC decision and direction, saying the commission took “no action” on the proposal. The applicant was instructed to “work with staff … [to bring back] a plan to preserve, repair, and renovate this building.”

The property

The walkup building with 19 residential units in SoHo has 9,451 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 24 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,467 square feet. The zoning is R7-2 which allows for up to 3.44 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Sullivan-Thompson Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.5 million.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

This property was sold for $5.6 million on September 11, 2007.

The 9,451-square-foot property generated revenue of $441,326 or $47 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Development

Vito Vacca of S.W. Management submitted a new building construction project for a seven-unit, 8,481 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 139 Thompson Street. The plan was filed on July 29, 2025. It calls for the construction of a 64-foot tall, six-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number M01248702. The architect is EDG. The project is described in the filing as:  construct new 6-story residential multi-family building. existing party wall and foundation at south lot line to remain. historic street facade to be rebuilt. work on floors cel, 01-06, fac, rof.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received two DOB violations and $50 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In SoHo, The bulk, or 46 percent of the 9.5 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, SoHo has the 7th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.7 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, SoHo has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 31st highest in Manhattan. It had 969,181 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 10 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of six of the nine commercial properties representing 81,612 square feet of the 92,007 square feet. The largest owner is Gatsby Enterprises, followed by Gershon Levy and then John Paravalos. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 8,481 square feet. It is a seven-unit, 8,481 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by S.W. Management and filed by Vito Vacca with plans filed July 29, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that S.W. Management owned at least 214 commercial properties with 8,634 residential units in New York City with 6,498,945 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.4 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $680.3 million in debt, with top three lenders as Signature Bank, New York Community Bank, and Deutsche Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 65 percent of the 6,498,945 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with walkup properties next occupying 33 percent of the space. The bulk, or 75 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 23 percent of the space.

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Martin Blum, head officer and Isaac Benishai, agent. The business entity is 139 Thompson Street Llc.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 139 Thompson Street, PincusCo identified nine commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those nine items, five were sales above $5 million totaling $48.3 million. The most recent of the five was Gatsby Enterprises which bought the 15,515-square-foot, 30-unit rental (C7) on 137 Sullivan Street for $12.5 million from Gatsby Enterprises on March 10, 2026. Of those nine items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $37.3 million. The most recent of the four was Gatsby Enterprises in which borrowed $8.7 million from Amalgamated Bank secured by the 15,515-square-foot, 30-unit rental (C7) on 137 Sullivan Street on March 25, 2026.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.