It's always bad to see a grown tree to be cut down just because the "investor" decided so. We have a similar problem in my country. There is a hundred years old tree in a town near mine, which is not only old, but also very rare kind of tree (Ginkgo tree). Unfortunately, the town officials sold the area including this tree to an estate developer, who is now going to cut down this rare tree. A real shame..
Here in PT, the rare species and other ones are inventoried/protected by state entities! Its dificult/impossible to cut them if they belong to the "inventory"!
The only solution is to cut it down to make way for progress. Perhaps there is no other way.
Can't go GREEN on this one if you want to be clean! Emotionally...it's up to you.