Mary Help of Christians Church on Avenue A was built over an old Catholic cemetery.

The dead may not literally walk among us, but they can certainly cause headaches for developers. In 2006, work on Trump Soho was temporarily halted when human remains were discovered at the construction site, where a Baptist Church once stood. Last year, plans for a development in Queens were nixed after the property—home to a colonial-era cemetery—was landmarked. And back in 1991, the federal government was forced to significantly alter plans for its $276 million federal office tower in Lower Manhattan after uncovering the 17th and 18th-century remains of hundreds of African Americans.

Now, several preservation and community groups are pleading with developer Douglast Steiner to his abandon plans to demolish the Mary Help of Christians Church complex at 181 Avenue A (between East 11th and East 12th streets), because the buildings were built over a former Catholic Cemetery.

Known as the Old St. Patrick's Cathedral cemetery and later as the East 11th Street Cemetery, the area was an active burial yard from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries. In 1909, the Catholic Church decommissioned the graveyard and moved the bodies to Calvary Cemetery in Queens. Or rather, they moved some, but maybe not all the bodies to Queens.

"When they closed the cemetery, it's unclear if they moved all of the remains," said Andrew Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "News accounts from the time refer to the church moving between 3,000 and 5,000 bodies, while there were some 40,000 bodies buried at the site. It could be that the reports were inaccurate, but..."

Mr. Steiner bought the development site for $41 million last fall and recently filed demolition permits for the church, the school and the rectory with the DOB. The developer is rumored to be planning a residential tower at the site with ground-floor retail. A spokesperson for Mr. Steiner said that renderings from a Ripco Realty listing spotted earlier this month by EV Grieve were not for the project, but rather another address.

Mr. Steiner himself has been rather unforthcoming about the project. Through a spokesperson, he declined to comment on the possibility of human remains at the site.

Of course, if there are remains at the site, the Catholic Church wasn't very squeamish about disturbing them when it built the church, the rectory and the school. Why should a developer be more fastidious?

Well, besides the fact that the church presumably had a priest and some holy water on hand to soothe any restless spirits, building on a burial yard isn't as easy as it used to be. Mr. Berman said that if human remains are discovered during construction, work must be stopped until the police and archeologists are called in to identify the remains and determine how work can move forward—a process under the jurisdiction of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The GVSHP and several other community groups are asking Mr. Steiner to avoid the possibility of unearthing any skeletons and to build on the adjacent church yard, which lies outside of the old cemetery border. They rallied Wednesday evening at Mary Help of Christians Church to make their request and to reveal news of the potential conflict with the not-to-so-recently deceased Villagers.

"Aside from the fact that it would be a good thing to do, there's a huge plot of land that he could build on while preserving a unique and wonderful building and creating a much more unique and valuable development site," said Mr. Berman. "It's not like we're saying, 'Don't build.'"

The plea is not an unreasonable one, nor is some kind of adaptive reuse unimaginable—churches have become luxury condos before. But it appears that preservationists and the local community—as evinced by an earlier, failed effort to block Mr. Steiner's demolition attempt with a landmark designation—are primarily concerned with the historic buildings, which would be saved if Mr. Steiner backed off so as not to dig into a potential boneyard.

"The church buildings are a testament to the Italian immigrant legacy in New York City and remain living monuments," Sara Romanoski, the Managing Director of the East Village Community Coalition, wrote in a statement. "As a community, we ask the developer to recognize the opportunity for incorporating these architecturally significant buildings into the new development."

Mr. Ross wouldn't comment, but the beard seemed to represent at least a couple months' worth of growth. Either he had been planning far in advance for a single appearance at this party, or the New York City real estate market is Billyburg-ifying. On a balcony overlooking Manhattan, up seven flights of stairs (the elevator in 58 Metropolitan was out of order), brokers and prospective buyers had caught 'burg fever.

"I think Williamsburg is bubbling back to life," broker Thor Thors said.

"I like the area, which I wouldn't have said a year and a half ago," broker Barbara Rogers said. "There's more going on now."

"I think it's the Bohemia of New York," party guest Ashok Pai said. "It has every conceivable service."

Mr. Pai, who dreams of starting a media company ("I want to become a left-wing Rush Limbaugh- or Glenn Beck-type person"), lives in a condo at 80 Metropolitan, which he bought in February. He showed up at 58 Metropolitan with one of his new friends, a neighbor in his building. Wearing a seersucker blazer, a silk pocket square and pressed khaki trousers, with a mop of black hair covering one eye, Mr. Pai said he likes to eat vegan food in the Financial District and study in the Columbia library. His home base, though, is Williamsburg.

"This is my baby," said Douglas C. Steiner, CEO of Steiner Companies, which developed 58 Metropolitan. He's the grandson of the founder of the company, which also runs a movie studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. "We built Steiner Studios in 1999, so we're big Brooklyn fans," he said.

The balcony of 58 Metropolitan affords a clear (and protected) view of the Manhattan skyline. Although the apartment building is at least a 10-minute (11-minute, according to Google Maps) walk from the Bedford Avenue L stop, Steffan Stern, president of real estate at Steiner (and a big fan of The Observer), doesn't think that matters.

"The best stuff in Williamsburg is not on Bedford. The best stuff is on side streets," he said. "You look around and there's always something new and creative."

Despite the general enthusiasm, there were some at the party who hadn't drunk the Kool-Aid (or the Brooklyn Brewery Brown Ale, as the case may be). Nalini Sommer, a prospective buyer, said if she moved to Williamsburg she'd fear for her safety. "I like the neighborhood if I'm in a relationship. I don't see myself being a single person living here," she said. "It's a little on the creepyish side."

Broker Mike Alba was frank.

"I don't like it," he said. "It's too industrial. A lot of people like that, but I don't."

He said the party was a cleverly designed marketing strategy to perpetuate the myth of Williamsburg. Indeed, speakers played tunes from Brooklyn's own Grizzly Bear and the Dirty Projectors, along with Pitchfork darling Girls. Brooklyn Brews complemented chicken and sweets from Williamsburg artisan food purveyor Pies 'n' Thighs.

Near the end of the event, Mr. Pai said he had plans to crash another real estate party at Northside Piers. He said it was a formal dinner party but that he'd be able to get in anyway. He did this kind of thing all the time.

"Let's go," he said, brushing his hair out of his face. "It'll be easy."

walden@observer.com

As Mr. De Niro, Mr. Weinstein and an entourage strolled along the water, they took in the view of the New York City skyline, which shimmered to the south, beyond the George Washington Bridge. The significance of the moment wasn't lost on the group. Nearly a year ago, the two men had stood on another waterfront with a view of the city's skyline–the Brooklyn Navy Yard–and announced plans for a film studio. But that deal fell apart last fall, after Mayor Rudolph Giuliani enraged Messrs. De Niro and Weinstein by abruptly ousting them from the project and awarding it to a pair of Brooklyn entrepreneurs.

Mr. De Niro and Mr. Weinstein still are fuming over their treatment at the hands of City Hall. And so, as the group gazed at the city, the site seemed to offer more than just wonderful views. If they succeeded in building a studio outside city limits, it would be a satisfying end to a saga that many assumed was over when the Mayor humiliated them six months ago.

"They were clearly in love with the [new] site," observed one person who is not part of the De Niro-Weinstein group but walked the waterfront with the two men. "But a studio here would clearly stick it up Rudy's knickers."

"This has nothing to do with the Mayor," countered Jane Rosenthal, a co-founder and partner at Mr. De Niro's TriBeCa Productions. "This is about building studios."

At a recent press conference upstate, Gov. George Pataki confirmed that discussions were underway between state officials and Mr. De Niro's group. Ms. Rosenthal would say only that the Governor's remarks were correct.

After Mr. Giuliani ousted the two men from the Navy Yard project in October, New Jersey officials beckoned and offered them a chance to build a studio in Harrison, N.J., as part of a 250-acre waterfront redevelopment.

Now state officials, led by Charles Gargano, Gov. Pataki's top economic adviser, are doing their best to prevent Mr. De Niro and Mr. Weinstein from building the studio out of state. Even as talks continue between Mr. De Niro's group and Jersey officials, Mr. Gargano and other officials have contacted Mr. De Niro and Mr. Weinstein and put them in touch with the cable company that owns the Yonkers site. Mr. Gargano has had several discussions with the two men about the site's possibilities. Spokesmen for Mr. Gargano and Miramax Films declined to comment.

If it is built, the studio would be 22 minutes from the city by commuter rail. The site includes a 100-foot-tall, light-blue-paneled building that was used by Paramount Pictures to shoot "Sleepy Hollow."

Rudy Helps Yonkers!

Now that Mr. De Niro and Mr. Weinstein seem interested in the new site, state officials and Yonkers leaders are thrilled that Mr. Giuliani elected to award the Navy Yard project to someone else. "It's clear that the city's misjudgment on this one is the city of Yonkers' and the state of New York's gain," said Paul Adler, a Rockland County Democratic official and a vice president at Prudential Rand, one of two companies brokering discussions between Mr. De Niro's group and Yonkers officials.

According to sources involved in the discussions, Mr. De Niro and Mr. Weinstein envision a scaled-down version of the Navy Yard project, which is expected to have a dozen soundstages that will be able to compete with Hollywood. Mr. De Niro and Mr. Weinstein are contemplating a project that would include up to a half-dozen soundstages. The blue-paneled building, which has the advantage of having no floors or columns inside, would house a soundstage of up to 30,000 square feet. One option being discussed is a joint venture that would include TriBeCa Productions, Mr. De Niro's production company, Miramax Films and BICC Cables Corporation, which still owns the site.

The efforts by Mr. De Niro and Mr. Weinstein–which were first reported by the Westchester-based Journal News –is only one of several surprising new plot lines in the Brooklyn Navy Yard saga. Most New Yorkers assumed that the story had come to an end last fall, when Mr. Giuliani handed the Navy Yard project to two Brooklyn investors who first dreamed up the idea, Louis Madigan and Cary Dean Hart. Their financial backer was Douglas Steiner, a New Jersey developer who is the son of a top Democratic power broker. At the time, Mr. Giuliani justified the move by insisting that the Steiner-led group would develop the project at a better price for the city than Mr. De Niro and company.

But now Mr. Steiner has run into legal trouble. In February, just weeks after Mr. De Niro and Mr. Weinstein journeyed to Yonkers, Mr. Steiner quietly pleaded guilty to breaking into a Federal judge's chamber as part of a marriage squabble. According to the New Jersey Law Journal , Mr. Steiner admitted breaking into the chamber to gain access to the computer of his wife, the judge's law clerk, to determine whether she was having an extramarital affair. Mr. Steiner, who is scheduled to be sentenced on May 11, is not expected to do jail time under a plea agreement, the report said. He declined to comment.

Mr. Madigan dismissed talk of Mr. Steiner's travails. "It's had no impact on the project," he told The Observer . "Demolition is underway and we'll start construction in the summer."

Meanwhile, Mr. De Niro and Mr. Weinstein may face problems of their own. At first glance, the site lacks the glamour of the suddenly hip Brooklyn Navy Yard. It sits in the Glenwood section of Yonkers, a once-thriving industrial neighborhood that is now filled with beat-up and abandoned Victorian houses and apartment buildings.

What's more, the site is a mess. It is suspected to be contaminated by lead, asbestos and P.C.B.'s–leading the city of Yonkers to lower the assessed value of the property from $9 million to $2.5 million, to account for millions of dollars in cleanup costs.

Still, such post-industrial landscapes seem to entrance Mr. De Niro. He poured millions of dollars into his TriBeCa Film Center at a time when talk of investing in the area drew knowing snickers from realtors who couldn't imagine a successful development south of SoHo. And Mr. De Niro was among the first to be inspired by Mr. Madigan and Mr. Hart's idea of a studio at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, another once-thriving area that has sustained decades of post-industrial decline.