Windsor Terrace Crew Flouting SWO?
Some weird—and possibly illegal and highly dangerous—stuff is going down at a construction site in Windsor Terrace. According to a message sent out to the Windsor Terrace Alliance email list, illegal demolition activity was occurring yesterday at 1216 Prospect Avenue, the old Elks Club building on Vanderbilt Street. Last week, according to the message, demolition…
Some weird—and possibly illegal and highly dangerous—stuff is going down at a construction site in Windsor Terrace. According to a message sent out to the Windsor Terrace Alliance email list, illegal demolition activity was occurring yesterday at 1216 Prospect Avenue, the old Elks Club building on Vanderbilt Street. Last week, according to the message, demolition “was shut down on 5/9/08 for illegal mechanical demolition with a Stop Work Order and 2 ECB violations issued by DOB. The property, legally, should have been demolished by hand, only allowing mechanical work once they reached the first floor. As of [yesterday], there has been a partial lift of the SWO to allow for remediation for safety concerns ONLY. Unfortunately the demolition company, Greco, has continued with illegal demolition. 311 has been called, DOB has been alerted. Seems the contractors have also been aggressive with a few of the neighbors, which is just down right wrong.” Last night the DOB shut down the site again and ordered an evacuation of two adjacent buildings due to unsafe conditions. This morning, workers were on hand, but it wasn’t clear what they were doing. One of the construction workers told us they were “demolishing the building.” A DOB enforcement employee was present and said he had no comment about whether the crews had engaged in demolition despite the SWO or what exactly they were being allowed to proceed with now. UPDATE: Here’s the skinny from DOB. A Stop Work Order was indeed issued on Monday for illegal mechanical demolition. During the Monday inspection, DOB identified the hazardous conditions posed to the adjacent building by the partially-demolished wall. As a result, Buildings issued a vacate order for the adjacent building. The work being done today was in fact remedial work that the contractor was required to do so that residents could return next door. Tomorrow, the contractor must perform some remedial flashing to bring the site up to snuff in the safety department. GMAP
Legal fees? thats the american way. Always looking to make a quick buck off of the people who actually put there time in.
If these people deserve to spend a night in jail b/c they are building new homes for people instead of looking at a eye sore, then I would hate to see what you recomend to a man collecting soda cans from garbage pails.
6:53 It seems like property values have increased despite the fact that a run down building existed on the corner! Lets hope the values keep going up so that the next door neighbors can offset their $20,000 legal fees when their old foundations crumble.
11:11 I’m not so troubled by the fact that the previous owners “wanted so much” for their building as I am by the fact that the new owners seem to care so little about the neighboring property. The LLC who hired Greco is the one thumbing their noses or flipping the bird at anyone who stands in their way of making a few more bucks by rushing the tear down and causing the emergency vacate order.
Com. Lancaster (RIP) established a special inspection team (besides BEST) to handle rouge demolition companies like Greco. I would like to see some follow through here. (Some disruption of their business models as she used to say) I mean this kind of blatant hubris by unsafe contractors during a time of stepped up enforcement and DOB inspections makes me wonder…
I thought SWO’s were now also being enforced by the police department? The 72nd? I have to agree with Action Jackson. We won’t see any compliance until the guy on the back hoe and his boss spend the night in jail.
the area is not zoned for commercial. its zoned for residential only. i hear that they are gonna be beautifull 3 family style homes and depending on how the market is will determine if they go condos or not.
im actually a local renter and i cant wait to see the new dwellings when they are complete. im very intrested in buying a new apartment. the rent im paying for a small apartment in a OLD HOUSE could be a mortgage payment in a new apartment.. i am all for the change..
If you wanted to turn the site into a movie theatre then why not buy the property yourself?.
How can you get upset about an increase in value of property upon completion of a new job? As opposed to a ruin down building that existed there. Dollars and sense sometimes must come in to play, we all beneift in the end when our property value goes up.
It was a movie theater, and a nice rental space for Elks club members. They just wanted so much money for the building it had to be to attract developers. Nothing like flipping the old hood the bird on your way out.
What is planned for this site? When I see such disregard for the neighbors in the site prep, it pretty much convinces me that a piece of crap is going up. Oh, and it’s not criminal to breach DOB rules, even though it’s dangerous and deadly–those people who were evacuated have to take civil action to get relief. Good luck with that. This city has sold its soul to some real low-life developers.
Husband and I always dreamed of turning that Elks Club back into a little movie theatre (which it apparently once was): a local version of the old Theatre 80 St. Marks, with afternoon silent-movie classics for kids, funky curated revival double bills, Saturday morning vintage serials, and famous real fresh popcorn with real butter. Of course it would lose money horribly, but we would have run it after winning the lottery and simply subsidized it as a labor of love. This fantasy was so persistent and potent for me (I pass the building daily taking my kid to school) that I actually let out a little cry of sorrow upon seeing the big machines tearing it down.