than for theatrical purposes. Other nearby buildings, including possibly the Times Square Theater, would have been razed to create a park. Preservation attempts The City at 42nd Street plan was announced in December 1979 as part of a proposal to restore West 42nd Street around Times Square. Under the plan, the Times Square Theatre would have been preserved, and some of the other theaters would have been modified. Mayor Ed Koch wavered in his support of the plan, referring to it as a "Disneyland on 42nd Street". Subsequently, Hugh Hardy conducted a report on 42nd Street's theaters in 1980. His report helped motivate the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to survey fifty of Midtown Manhattan's extant theaters in the early 1980s. The LPC had started to consider protecting theaters as landmarks in 1982, including the Times Square Theater, with discussions continuing over the next several years. While the LPC granted landmark status to many Broadway theaters starting in 1987, it deferred decisions on the exterior and interior of the Times Square Theater. Further discussion of the landmark designations was delayed for several decades. In late 2015, the LPC hosted public hearings on whether to designate the Times Square and six other theaters as landmarks. The LPC rejected the designations in February 2016, as the theaters were already subject to historic-preservation regulations set by the state government. Early redevelopment proposals The Urban Development Corporation (UDC), an agency of the New York state government, then proposed redeveloping the area around a portion of West 42nd Street in 1981. The plan centered around four towers that were to be built at 42nd Street's intersections with Broadway and Seventh Avenue, developed by Park Tower Realty and the Prudential Insurance Company of America. The Brandt family planned to submit a bid to redevelop some of the theaters they owned on 42nd Street. In June 1982, the Brandts' five theaters on the north side of 42nd Street, including the Times Square, were added to the redevelopment plan. In August 1984, the UDC granted Jujamcyn Theaters the right to operate the Selwyn, Apollo, and Lyric theaters; as part of the same project, the Times Square Theater would have become retail space. In response, Brandt and Cine Theater Corp. sued the UDC, claiming that the moves shut out independent theatrical operators. Michael J. Lazar would have renovated the four theaters for Jujamcyn, but the city and