Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal reported that a new tenant at the graffiti covered landmark 190 Bowery wanted to keep the iconic art at the building's base now that the space is being converted into residential and retail spaces. Matthew Moneypenny, chief executive of the multi-agency company moving in, said that "companies like ours tend to thrive in places that have a soul and a history," adding that they needed to make changes to bring the building to code but everything else would stay the same. But Moneypenny later clarified in an email to ANIMAL that the final decision is actually not up to his company.
"To be clear, we have expressed our very adamant preference that the graffiti remain," said Moneypenny, "and the management company seems well aligned with our view, but the ground floor retail or restaurant tenant will apparently have the final say." Moneypenny's company will move into five floors of the building, but the tenant for the bottom floor is still unknown.
"I love graffiti and virtually all forms of public art," Moneypenny added. "It reminds me of the NYC I fell in love with many, many years ago...I’ve always enjoyed passing by [190 Bowery], checking out the new additions and it would be a shame to wipe out all that effort. It really is one of the very last original remnants of the neighborhood." Hopefully the new tenant is someone cool, otherwise they will get a lot of hate from the community and we could have another 5Pointz situation on our hands, though on a much smaller scale.
