Protect Grand Prospect Hall

Surveying the skyline from the roof of our warehouse building in South Park Slope we can see the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, and two blocks north, the historic Grand Prospect Hall, a much loved part of Brooklyn’s cultural fabric. The last of these is now wrapped in scaffolding and netting, prepped for destruction, slated to be replaced at a date to be determined with just another building offering market-rate housing, as soon as the Department of Buildings issues the demolition permits.

Fortunately, the community is fighting back, organizing in less than three weeks with savvy legal and activist teams and a petition drive with 40,000 signatures and counting. For New York City’s heritage, we must succeed.

Widely known for the low-budget “We make your dreams come true” television ads which spawned “Saturday Night Live” and Jimmy Kimmel spoofs, Grand Prospect Hall was an ornate Victorian-style banquet hall with a ballroom, numerous elegant themed rooms, an iconic marble staircase, chandeliers and many golden sconces and reliefs throughout the four-story complex. First built in 1893, then rebuilt in 1903 after a fire, this has been the place of uncountable weddings, school and community events, and, going back more than a century, high-society galas rich in history, while touching so many lives.

More importantly, it’s a weird and wonderful part of the city’s soul, one we must ensure we do not relegate to rubble.

I am part of a large, multi-group artistic events community that, for more than 15 years, has participated in public and private events all throughout the city. At Grand Prospect Hall, we were honored to be included in the spectacular, twonight City of Gods, where a dozen groups collaborated to create one of the greatest Halloween parties of history with 5,000 attendees each night. That magical weekend was only possible in the Hall’s large, multi-room environment.

When a beloved venue shutters to be repurposed as condos, chain restaurants, gyms or other inconsequential alternatives, we lose some of what makes our city itself. Building by building, we may not think it’s that consequential, but before we know it, New York will no longer feel like New York.

In July, the story broke that Alice Halkias had sold the hall and surrounding buildings in the compound after her husband Michael had passed from complications of COVID-19, prompting Councilman Brad Lander and Assemblyman Robert Carroll to request a landmark designation from the Landmarks

Preservation Commission for both the building’s facade and grand ballroom. Unfortunately, the request was not acted upon in time and, while the GPH is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the lack of any city landmarking allowed the new owners to get a partial demolition permit and gut the place without the community’s knowledge or input.

The speed of the gutting was, well, gutting to many of us. But this doesn’t have to be the end.

Neighbors like me met enterprising teenagers Solya Spiegel and Toby Pannone, who started a petition drive and united forces with legal adviser Norman Siegel and a growing list of elected officials joining Lander and Carroll. On Sept. 9, our attorney won a temporary injunction against further destruction while Lander and Carroll continued to advocate with the Landmarks Preservation Commission to save the facade.

Tuesday came word that the LPC is formally rejecting landmark status.

So what to do now? With the insides stripped to the studs, it might seem as though the fight is lost. We say the past can inspire the future. Just like previous generations revitalized the Hall after a fire destroyed the original structure in 1900, we have an opportunity to reimagine this place in ways that will respect the building’s history while continuing to make dreams come true. With the bones of the building still intact and a network of culturally attuned real estate investors coming together, we hope to work with the new owner to build around a revitalized, and likely smaller, Prospect Hall in ways that will benefit the community while helping the owner reach his business goals.

As New York seeks to remake itself, with Amazon killing retail and the pandemic hollowing out office spaces, it is the arts, culture, nightlife and tourism sectors that will be our salvation. Grand Prospect Hall is in the center of a burgeoning neighborhood between Park Slope and Sunset Park, a perfect place for an events space with the surrounding land and basement spaces available to do something inspiring and thoughtful that can integrate with commercial and residential uses.

With its rich history and status as a cornerstone of the neighborhood’s character, Grand Prospect Hall should not be another victim of COVID. For post-pandemic New York City, we can and must do better.