Cover-Up At The Washington Condos?
The Washington Condominium at 35 Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights has been a long time coming. As blogger Set Speed first mentioned on Friday, the building finally got its Temporary C of O last week after countless delays. His announcement stirred up a rather contentious debate in the comments section over some of the quick-fixes…
The Washington Condominium at 35 Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights has been a long time coming. As blogger Set Speed first mentioned on Friday, the building finally got its Temporary C of O last week after countless delays. His announcement stirred up a rather contentious debate in the comments section over some of the quick-fixes that the developer has performed to get around the FAR calculation problems of Mezzaninegate, photos of which mysteriously arrived in our mailbox yesterday. The most bizarre? He reportedly has reduced the ceiling height in the mezzanines from seven feet to five feet (the point at which the space is considered storage rather than living space) by building up plywood platforms (see photos). One commenter on the Set Speed thread said that DOB was okay with this approach and that it had happened at a number of the other Scarano projects with similar violations. Can this be true? Does anyone know if using plywood like this is up to code? Seems like the Fire Department might have something to say about it. If all is not on the up-and-up, what does this mean for the building and those who already handed over their down payments last year?
The Washington Gets Temporary C of O? [Set Speed]
Checking In on the Washington Condos [Brownstoner] GMAP
With a good lawyer the buyers should be able to get their money back. Simply, the buyer was originally going to get a 7 foot ceiling and now it is 5 foot. Totally legitimate reason to get out.
By Code it should be sprinklered underneath which should deal with everyone’s concern about spontaneous combustion and children with Saws-alls.
that is just gross. what a waste. I feel bad for all of the buyers. Not an easy re-sell either.
the building dept. inspectors consider this a fire hazard for all those joksters out there as well as the developer who’s posting lies.
it’s also rather difficult for anyone over 4’11” to enjoy breakfast, guests, or anything else, in a space that’s 5′ in height.
“…it is very hard to get stains up from plywood so say goodbye to using this area as a breakfast nook or a guest kitchen.”
The C of O issue is definitely a difficult one, because many buildings close with a TCO and the TCO can commonly last for over a year due to different reasons; for example, I’ve been living in my current apartment for almost a year and we still have a TCO due to completely unrelated construction work being done by the city which tore up our sidewalk.
My impression is that once the initial inspections are done and closings have taken place, further inspections will only take place on areas where there are still outstanding items/violations – so if there was signoff on the individual units they are not likely to be inspected again.
On another front, while I agree with some of the other posters that the argument over the plywood safety is a bit out of hand (although you do wonder why they didn’t just make the ceilings lower), if bathrooms are simply being blocked off that is much more of a concern. If the water isn’t shut off to these areas you could end up with nasty leaks or other damage to your apartment, and if they’re sealed off you might not know/be able to fix the damage until it’s really a problem.
Given the extent of these problems and the fact that so many people are not getting the property they paid for, purchasing will be a big risk. With this much rush work being done on the apartments there will be a TON of construction problems. Assuming there will be enough owners to elect a board soon, the board will spend much of the first year fixing major operational problems and preparing for the possibility of a lawsuit.
Some people on the board may find this opinion too harsh/negative, but it’s based on my own experiences as a member of the board in a new condo with some construction issues that are much more minor than these.
Overall, I would not recommend purchasing for anyone who is not 1) planning to live in the property for at least 5 years; 2) prepared to do a lot of work negotiating with the sponsor; 3) getting a significant discount off the prices originally paid since the apartments are so different than what was originally offered. Just my $.02.
you people who are buying into have legitimate concerns re:CofO status and the like.
Those of you calling this a fire hazard/child hazard are neurotic nutjobs.
charred rubble? i think the concern here is revolving around charred deposit money.
would everybody who’s so worried that spontaneous combustion will occur in this plywood box just chill? i mean, really, how do y’all leave your apartments every day without worrying you’ll come home to charred rubble?
The A. children at A&G are a joke/ At least the male one. He didn’t bother to show up at our closing as our broker. Informed us one day before.
Now they are peddling these death traps.
Shame.