It looks like the DOB is starting to step up to the plate and hit scofflaw developers where it hurts. When DOB stopped by 716-718 6th Avenue, site of a former gas station and auto shop, yesterday and found that developer Salvatore Garzillo (who’d paid a combined $1,475,000 for the two properties in September of last year) had strayed from the plans he had filed, the agency went way beyond its typical financial slap on the wrist. Instead, it issued a Stop Work Order for the front of the site and ordered the demolition of the illegal construction at the rear of the property. (Garzillo is already a much-loved character in the neighborhood for the eyesore he built on the corner of 21st Street and 6th Avenue.) It’ll be interesting to see if this is the beginning of a new trend of enforcing the buildings code retroactively. It strikes us that this would be a powerful incentive to make developers conform to it in the first place.
716 6th Avenue: GMAP P*Shark DOB
718 6th Avenue: GMAP P*Shark DOB