Another Small Developer Cutting Corners
We swung by to take a look at the progress on the corner of Grand and Greene this weekend and then stopped in next door to chat with local salvage kingpin Eddie. What we learned was this: Three Saturday’s ago Eddie had to call the fire department because the developer had, surprise, surprise, conducted the…
We swung by to take a look at the progress on the corner of Grand and Greene this weekend and then stopped in next door to chat with local salvage kingpin Eddie. What we learned was this: Three Saturday’s ago Eddie had to call the fire department because the developer had, surprise, surprise, conducted the initial foundation excavation without the supervision of an engineer and, and a result, the handful of non-licensed workers on site had “compromised” the wall of his building by digging too far under it. So the fire department showed up and issued a Cease Work order and now supposedly things are being done by the book. We hope so. Work has resumed but our confidence level in what the finished product will look like is pretty low.
More Development in Eastern Clinton Hill [Brownstoner]
Um . . . developpers and contractors are often the same people. My dad, your brother in law, his sister’s best friend. These are all small business people, this is not something that goes to an open bidding and Bovis and Parsons are battling for the project.
We wanted to buy a gorgeous old building recently. I met the owner. AND his contractor. Two buddies. Oh brother. What a team of dumbfx. I checked the building, it had a list of violations.
The upper east side only a couple of years ago lost the battle against a developper coming in a building a “loft” building on Madison and 91st. There are def monstrosities up in that area too. But communities DO FIGHT (and often DO WIN) to preserve old buildings more where the people who live there are lawyers or have the money to hire them and do the threatening and fighting.
I’m guessing.
I think everybody ends up hiring a company and hoping for the best with these things. It’s too bad there’s no test or something for owners before DOB permits are issued. Just a lot of misinformation out there. Plus a lot of owners who think architects, construction site managers and the like are all just rip-offs. I don’t actually think they are too cheap to hire these kinds of people, I think they honestly don’t know what they are missing and they are too in to control to let go and delegate some major aspects of the work to an authority of any kind.
The developer did do it “on purpose” by hiring the cheapest, shoddiest contractor they could find and not making sure they were performing the work properly.
Blaming the developer is EXACTLY THE POINT–they are entirely responsible for every aspect of the project and they stand to profit from the sale of the completed building.
Cutting corners like this is totally reprehensible and completely par for the course with these sleazy developers.
Exactly, Shahn.
He didn’t just dig deeper than he was supposed to, he did the digging without the oversight of an engineer and has possibly compromised the foundation of the adjacent building. He cut corners by not having an engineer do the job they are supposed to do. The plans from the DOB most certainly would have included some sort of structural engineering report on the adjacent foundation, and anyone gazing at those plans and then hiring someone to do the work would be well aware of that. That’s where he cut corners.
Obviouly he is aware of what is going on right now, because the DOB has put a Stop Work Order in. I am just saying that assuming the developer “purposely tried to cut corners” by digging deeper than he should, does not make business sense. Before the foundation work start, the architect already specified how deep to dig. Nobody wants to go deeper than the neighbor’s building, because you will have to do underpinning, which is expensive, but could be done if the cost is justified. Everybody wants their project to proceed smoothly without interruption and expenses of violations.
In this case the foundation contractor probably made a mistake, but to say that the developer did it on purpose, is stretching the truth.
I think you are naive if you think the developer hasn’t approved every aspect of the project, down to which bricks are picked and what price he is paying for them. If the developer is having the GC use a cheap sub-contractor and doing less than is required to cut corners, you can bet your ass that he is well aware of what is going on.
The developer hired a General Contractor to do the project. The GC probably has hired another sub-contractor to do the foundation. I doubt that any developer is doing the job themselves, unless they happen to be a general contractor also.
So blaming the developer is pointless. It’s like blaming Bstoner for the bad job his contractor did on his renovations. (as an example only, I don’t want to imply that it happened)
Excuse my ignorance but why is this sort of thing less likely to happen in a more upscale locale like Brooklyn Heights or, say, the Upper East Side? Wealthier developers? The city pays more attention? More motivated community groups? Fate?