BY JACKSON CHEN | Community Board 4 (CB4) is again outraged at city agencies for allowing the destruction of another residential building at 253 10th Ave.
The four-story building at the corner of 10th Ave. and W. 25th St. is currently wrapped in scaffolding and construction netting. According to a Department of Buildings (DOB) order on June 6, the building is expected to undergo emergency demolition work on its walls because they were in danger of collapse. But CB4 is claiming the building’s structural integrity was compromised due to earlier demolition permits that should have never been approved.
According to DOB records, a full demolition permit was issued on April 24 for 253 10th Ave. that is zoned under the Special West Chelsea District. According to CB4 district manager Jesse Bodine, the board pointed out to the DOB that the demolition was illegal because they didn’t seek a Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) certificate that proves the building couldn’t be rehabilitated. Without that qualification, the DOB issued a Stop Work Order on May 10, but some demolition of the building’s roof, windows, and walls already occurred.
In a letter sent on June 14 to the DOB, the HPD, and the City Planning Commission, CB4 is claiming the earlier illegal demolition work is actually what rendered the building unsafe.
“The end result is that a series of errors on the part of the building owners and DOB led to the illegal partial demolition of the building,” their letter read, “And then, on the basis of those errors, to the condemnation of the now unsafe building.”
Betty Mackintosh, the co-chair for CB4’s Chelsea Land Use Committee, called the compromised integrity a “self-afflicted hardship.”
“They didn’t get the proper review… to get a demolition permit so they went ahead and they took off the roof and some walls,” Mackintosh said. “Then guess what, the building is deemed unsafe and they have to demolish.”
However, the DOB claims that the building was vacant and structurally compromised before any demolition permits were issued. The agency added that their engineers felt that an emergency demolition order would likely have been issued even if the demolition permits weren’t approved.
But, CB4 members are not pleased with the DOB’s assessment. Mackintosh said that there’s no way of knowing the building’s integrity considering the earlier demolition work that was conducted improperly. The board’s letter added that the DOB’s involvement with 253 10th Ave. was “depressingly familiar” as it lists seven other nearby properties that have fallen to a similar self-fulfilling prophecy. According to CB4, more than 100 residential units have been lost to this pattern of loose DOB approvals for demolitions.
Their letter expressed the board’s outrage and also requested the DOB to “redouble its efforts to protect buildings in our special districts from illegal demolition.”
“Folks have found these little buildings, they know they can have more floor area,” Mackintosh said. “They tear them down, they build a new building. That’s the name of the game.”
According to an HPD spokesperson, the agency received a hold order on the building and has not moved forward with the demolition
