The long-term battle over the future of the former P.S. 64 building at 605-615 East 9th Street, an important but unofficial Lower East Side landmark, is heating up.

The impressive, five-story, red-brick and white terracotta, mid-block building extends through the block to 10th Street. On Ninth Street, it is immediately east of Christadora House, the tallest building fronting on Tompkins Square Park and directly across from the attractive garden on Avenue B of the Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish.

Some community groups and elected officials are seeking to have the property declared a city landmark and the owner, Gregg Singer of the Singer Financial Corporation filed suit last week in New York State Supreme Court against the city seeking damages claiming his rights to due process have been violated.

An article in this week?s edition of The Village by Lincoln Anderson noted that his suit maintains that he has suffered ?tortuous interference? and that the city has ?sabotaged his efforts to attract university tenants for the project? and well as non-profit organizations.

Mr. Singer acquired the property for $3.15 million when the city auctioned the former school building in 1998 when it was occupied by the Charas/El Bohio community and cultural center. The center was evicted and Mr. Singer had plans developed by Beyer Blinder Belle for a handsome, 26-story, residential structure on part of the site.

The suit maintains that Mr. Singer has a legal right to develop a student dormitory on the site under regulations for ?community facility? uses and that the Buildings Department has changed the rules on him. According to the article in The Villager, the suit ?says it?s unfair for the city to landmark the building after Singer purchased it, that the building is unremarkable and that there are, in fact, 10 other such ?H?-style school buildings extant in the city.

Last fall, the city?s Board of Standards and Appeals rejected Singer?s appeal of a denial of a building permit from the Buildings Department. The architectural firm of SLCE had filed plans on Mr. Singer?s behalf to ?remove existing cast-stone veneer, pediments, keystones and cornices from the fa?ade.?

Many of the city?s public schools erected in the early 20th Century were imposing and very attractive structures in historical revival architectural styles, often with large courtyards and very high ceilings and large windows. Such schools were often the only significant local landmarks other than some churches in many of the city?s poorer neighborhoods.

Last week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held its first public hearing on the building, which was probably erected under the supervision of C. B. J. Snyder, the city?s Superintendent of School Buildings, who created many handsome schools with Gothic, Jacobean, French and Colonial styles.

Mr. Singer revised his plans for the site and lowered the height of the tower first to 19 stories and more recently to only four floors above the existing building as well as agreeing to keep its front fa?ade and make available community space in the base ?for a reasonable price.?

According to the article in The Village, Mr. Singer last March also proposed ?swap the old P.S. 64 building?s developable air rights of 120,000 square feet? for other vacant city-owned property.?