The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously this morning not to designate the 152-year-old, 5-story building at 45-47 Park Place two blocks north of Ground Zero as an official city landmark, clearing the way for its owner to demolish it and build a proposed 13-story Islamic center and mosque.

"I've come to conclude that 45-47 Park Place does not rise to level of an individual landmark," Landmarks Chairman Bob Tierney said, arguing that it falls short when compared to other nearby buildings more worthy of recognition.

The building was formerly used by the Burlington Coat Factory and was recently purchased by a group known as the Cordoba House Initiative.

It had been partially damaged in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and many speakers at a hearing held by the commission last month argued for its designation as a landmark because loved ones they had lost in the terrorist attacks at Ground Zero.

Shelly Friedman, the attorney for the owner, reminded the commission at that hearing that it had first been considered for inclusion in an historic district in 1989 and had not been found worthy of inclusion and that, more recently, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer were in agreement that it was not worthy of a such a designation architecture.

The Anti-Defamation League issued a statement Wednesday in which it said it was opposed to the current site selection near Ground Zero for a proposed Islamic Center and the recent off-lead article on the front page of The New York Times was an article by Michael Barbaro with reporting by Paul Vitello, that said that the league's statement intensified "a fierce national debate about the limits of religious freedom and the meaning of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

Around the country opposition to the proposed center "is mounting," the article maintained, "fueled in part by Republican leaders and conservative pundits."

Mayor Bloomberg defended the commission's vote in a speech at Governor's Island today:

"Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here. This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never choose between religions or favor one over another. The World Trade Center site will forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts. But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans if we said no to a mosque in lower Manhattan....to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists, and we should not stand for that. For that reason, I believe that this is an important test of the separation of church and state as we may see in our lifetimes."

The Barbaro article quoted Oz Sultan, the programming director for the center, as stating that "We are looking to build bridges between faiths."

The Cordoba Initiative, an Islamic group, announced plans in May to tear down the building.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan co-founded the Cordoba Initiative and bought the building last year and have said the planned new building, now called Park51, would cost about $100 million and would have a 500-seat performing arts theater, fitness center, swimming pool, and library, as well as public conference rooms, basketball courts and restaurants. The Khans have said that the new building is "going to be a place not only for Muslim activity, but interfaith activity of the highest order."