All Demolition At Grand Prospect Hall Temporarily Paused By Court Order

All demolition at Grand Prospect Hall, the beloved event space and wedding venue which was sold to a developer in July, has been temporarily paused via court order on Wednesday, giving new hope to a community that feared there was no time left to save the little that is left of the beloved Park Slope institution.

According to a court stipulation reviewed by Gothamist, the hall's new owner Gowanus Cubes cannot do any further demolition work on the exterior property, except for removing hazardous materials or shoring, until at least September 16th. They must also "take all appropriate precautions to preserve the facade and to not further damage the facade or character of the building" until that date.

Jessica Breuer, an attorney representing a group of local activists who are fighting to preserve the space, said that the group is hoping to go before the Landmarks Preservation Commission before that date to attempt to secure landmark status for the hall. Either way, they've asked for a hearing for a preliminary injunction, which would continue the stipulation past the 16th.

"Apparently, opposing counsel said the inside was already dismantled 'except for the steel,' exaggerating the current state of demolition—and that is why the judgment was focused on the facade—but we are also trying to stop the Department Of Buildings (DOB) from issuing further structural demo permits and saving the space for an events and community center," said Jim Glaser, one of the activists involved in the action.

Gothamist learned last Thursday that Gowanus Cubes, an LLC operated by Angelo Rigas, had already begun gutting the interiors of the 118-year-old building, though a spokesperson for Rigas told us that the historic interior fixtures were already gone when they arrived, and it was "nothing but walls."

Glaser reiterated that though the decorative elements are gone, "the bones are still there and we want to keep it that way."

He added that it is absolutely worth "not letting yet another uncaring developer getting away with this type of destruction without trying to work something out with the community. We need to draw the line against this type of thing and we hope, by him needing to keep the facade, that his design plan will be changed to accommodate."

Back in July, Rigas purchased the property from Alice Halkias, who ran the longtime event space and wedding venue with her husband Michael for the last 40+ years until he died at the age of 82 from complications due to COVID-19. A few days after the purchase, the new owner got a permit from the DOB allowing them to do "interior demolition and non structural element removal." Rigas, who bought the hall as part of a larger $30 million, 12 property deal, plans to turn the building into "a low-scale residential building with an affordable component."

According to the DOB, a partial stop work order was issued on August 16th preventing any work from continuing in the side yard of the building—this is the location of a Polish American WWII Veterans Memorial. The project's spokesperson said they were working with the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York to move it elsewhere.

Earlier in the week, a small rally was held outside the hall where a sidewalk shed had gone up and work on the facade had apparently begun; that included taking down the classic awnings for both The Grand Prospect Hall and its adjoining Oak Room.

Although the building was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, it is not registered as a landmark in New York City.

City council member Brad Lander along with assemblyman Robert Carroll wrote a letter to the Landmarks Commission asking for the hall to get that designation back in July. The agency confirmed that they are reviewing the materials on the hall.

Historian Andrew Dolkart, a professor of Historic Preservation at the Columbia University School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, told Gothamist that there were examples of places getting a last-minute reprieve under similarly trying circumstances thanks to landmark designation. "A parallel, if a bit of a stretch, is Radio City Music Hall, which was saved at the last minute by a landmarks designation," he said.

Another person in favor of some sort of preservation of the hall: Glenn Palmedo-Smith, the great-great-grandson of John Kolle, the entrepreneur who first built the place.

"Bertha and John Kolle were recent immigrants from Germany to the U.S. in the 1880s, raising seven children at Prospect Hall from 1892 to the 1940s," Palmedo-Smith said. "It was always a loving home first and an active public house second."

Palmedo-Smith, who has recently completed a documentary about the Kolle family (you can watch it here), said he is in favor of making it a condition of demolition that the new owner "preserve for the community the original street entrance and grand foyer, thusly incorporating it into the new entrance of this vast new residence, depicting what was once 'here.'"

He added, "this developer needs to see that reverence for the community's heritage is a great and rare marketing tool [that sheds] positive light onto sales, ushering new neighbors into the community."