© Mark Bialek

Showdown at City Place

Ugly or not, here it comes

by James Leonard

posted 1/5/2011

Local developer Alex de Parry has been seeking permission to build a big new apartment complex on Fifth Avenue south of the library for five years. First he proposed tearing down the seven houses there now, all more than a century old, and building a row of brownstones. Then he proposed renovating the houses and putting two new buildings behind them, a project

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