The de Blasio administration tagged the iconic Strand Bookstore's building with a dreaded landmark designation Tuesday — a move the owner says was a concession to locals so the mayor can build a tech hub in the area.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 8-0 to make the bookseller's home at 828 Broadway a landmark — triggering onerous maintenance requirements that could send the 92-year-old shop's ledgers into the red, according to owner Nancy Bass-Wyden.
“The thing that started it was Mayor Bill de Blasio,” she told The Post. “We just don't want any more expenses. We don't need it. It's a brutal retail environment, and now we're under siege.”
The store was caught in the crossfire of a larger battle between de Blasio and area preservationists over the mayor's proposed Union Square Tech Training Center being built by his campaign donors nearby.
When de Blasio announced a rezoning at 120 E. 14th St. for the project, activists demanded the city designate the area a historic district to stanch an anticipated tide of glassy buildings expected to follow in the tech center's wake.
The mayor and local City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera instead cherry-picked seven nearby buildings on Broadway, and Hizzoner ordered the landmarks commission to designate them in a token gesture to appease preservationists, Bass-Wyden said.
“We were symbolic trade-offs — an olive branch for his tech center,” fumed Bass-Wyden, who testified in December that a designation would “destroy” her business. “They [the commission] are all mayoral appointees. They pretend that this is a democratic process.”
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