BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | A vacate order for 85 Christopher St. remained in effect earlier this week after a partial collapse atop the six-story tenement last Wednesday.
Firefighters called to the scene reported bricks falling from the front facade. The Department of Buildings quickly issued a full vacate order for the 20 apartments and two ground-floor shops — Nusraty Afghan Imports and Grand Cleaners.
Days earlier, a complaint was called in saying the building was vibrating and shaking, with “structural stability affected.”
According to D.O.B., “A preliminary investigation by the department has revealed that supports between the roof level and sixth floor failed, causing the wall of the building to buckle outward. Additional cracking was observed throughout the exterior of the building.”
The landlord has retained an engineer to make repairs, and a scaffolding has been erected.
The tenement, near St. John’s Lutheran Church, was built around 1900 and is in the Greenwich Village Historic District. Kenneth Friedman is the landlord.
On March 7 last year, the property was cited for a “major bulging of the brick facade at the 5th fl. Brickwork pushed outwards approx 3” X 4”…between the two fire escape windows.”
Friedman owes $2,500 in fines for failing to correct that violation, including a $1,500 civil penalty by D.O.B. issued Jan. 15.
Friday afternoon, Officer Adam Romang was guarding the vacant building to keep out trespassers. He was also telling people coming to pick up their dry cleaning that, yes, the shop was still closed.
He let Gary Lyon, 44 — who lives there with his wife, Cyndi Powell, 50 — inside briefly. He returned with a salsa jar.
“We’re having Mexican food for dinner,” he said.
They were staying next door at the church after two days at a Sunset Park hotel courtesy of Red Cross.
“The bricks on the facade needed work,” said Lyon, an arborist originally from South Africa. “The floors are angled. There’s been a lot of cracks developing. There’s been a lot of flooding in the bathrooms.”
Specifically, he said, due to plumbing problems, water often gushes from their bathroom light fixture. They repeatedly complained about it, in vain. “As a last resort,” he said, as the bathroom started flooding again May 14, his wife called the Fire Department, which — according to him — is what initially brought the firefighters there, leading them to observe the falling bricks.
Although Lyon said a new support beam was recently installed underneath the first floor, the cleaners recently added new machines that were rattling the building.
Update, Wed., May 22, 4 p.m.: Tenants with apartments in the building’s rear have been told they can return to their homes. But, around 3 p.m. Wednesday, one resident entering the building who lives in the rear said there were concerns whether the repairs were sufficient. “They’re just covering up cracks in the walls with spackle,” she said. The cleaners and Afghan imports shop on the ground floor were also back open for business. Tenants planned to meet next door in St. John’s Lutheran Church on Wednesday to regroup and talk about what needs to be done for the building at this point and where things stand.
