Plans for the downtown Manhattan renaissance are in the works according to the New York Times. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) plan to give six buildings to the arts organizations which currently reside in them.

Executive director of the Cooper Square Committee Steve Herrick is said to be working with the groups to help raise $7 million for renovations. (East Fourth Street is nestled within the Cooper Square area — which lays between Bowery and First Avenue, bordered by 14th Street to the north and Delancey to the south.)

Herrick was quoted as saying "Because these buildings look so awful, a lot of people don't even know how much culture we have here. But the block has always been a cultural incubator, and now we can keep it that way."

The city owns most of the block while 14 cultural organizations lease their spaces at a discount.

This news comes shortly after another announcement of the NYCHPD in which The Dermot Company, Inc. will develop new homes for Intar Theater and Ensemble Studio Theater at a proposed city-owned Clinton Green. The plan also includes mixed income housing units, retail space, community facility space and parking in the area on 10th Avenue between West 51st and West 53rd Streets.