By Josh Rogers
Avi Schick, the man in charge of demolishing the Deutsche Bank building, last week blasted Community Board 1’s chairperson for contributing to the project’s delays. He also said contractors may go to a 24-hour work schedule in order to get the building down quicker.
Schick, the chairperson of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the building’s owner, took Julie Menin to task when the Board 1 leader asked him when he thought the demolition would be done.
“You asked that we not rush things that we not provide incentive for speed,” Schick said at last week’s L.M.D.C. board meeting. “That we let the regulators and contractors do their work as safely as possible. We listened to you, we listened to the community board….”
He noted the community board had passed “at least three resolutions” calling for contractors to finish cleaning the building of toxic chemicals before resuming demolition work.
“Of course when you say ‘stop work simultaneously,’ and add several months to the project, it will probably take longer,” Schick added.
Menin, who is also on the L.M.D.C. board, attended the meeting by teleconference and was not in the room to hear Schick’s long retort, which was unusual in tone for the normally polite L.M.D.C. board meetings.
Menin said she was not suggesting sacrificing safety, but was merely trying to find out what the timetable was. “Taking the building down safely and expeditiously are not mutually exclusive,” she said.
Last August, two firefighters were killed battling a blaze at the 130 Liberty St. building, which was badly damaged on Sept. 11, 2001. After many years of delays caused by insurance disputes, environmental questions and contractor money disputes, demolition finally began in the spring of 2007, but it has not resumed since the fire. The 41-story structure had been reduced to 26 floors when the work stopped nearly a year ago.
Cleanup work preparing for the demolition bean again in April, but contractors indicated this week that it is taking longer than they expected.
Schick said the goal is still to complete the demolition by the end of the year, but he was only confident that the cleanup work would be done by then.
At the L.M.D.C. meeting, Schick said he wanted to add a third shift to the project, which would mean the work would go round the clock.
He did not repeat that hope this week at a C.B. 1 committee meeting, where at least one resident complained about late night noise caused by Deutsche.
Esther Regelson said she heard a truck going to the building at 1 a.m. last week, and the same thing happened at 2 a.m. this week. The current work schedule is supposed to be 7:00 a.m. – 12:30 a.m., Mon. –Sat.
Michael Murphy, the L.M.D.C.’s spokesperson. said the project has an “extensive noise prevention plan” which includes trucks not idling and avoiding using equipment that makes loud noises when it is brought into the building. The-24 hour schedule would be for interior abatement work and the work day is expected to be reduced from its current schedule once the demolition phase begins, presumably some time next year.
Roy Johnson, senior project manager at 130 Liberty St. for LVI Environmental Services Inc, said the Deutsche cleanup is much more complicated than the firm thought it would be.
“We didn’t anticipate the things we’re faced with every day,” he said at the Board 1 meeting Tuesday night. “Our initial schedule kind of went out the window. Until we’ve completed a typical floor, I’m reluctant to commit to a timeline or deadline. This project is like none we’ve dealt with.”
LVI was hoping to have floors 18 and 19 declared clean Monday, but the building inspectors found a small piece of dust and will be returning July 3, said the L.M.D.C.’s Murphy.
“We’re held to a dime standard,” he said. “They said there’s a little bit of dust here, maybe not more than a dime.”
Costs have also risen on the project. Last week, the L.M.D.C. board authorized another $37.5 million, which the corporation hopes will be enough to complete the cleanup and demolition. The board also authorized nearly $3 million for what it calls “document management” — the legal and copying fees needed to defend the criminal investigation into the fire and the civil lawsuits filed by the firefighters’ families.
The total cost to buy, clean and demolish the building now stands at about $280 million. Schick said that roughly half of that will cover the cleanup and demolition, and the corporation expects to eventually get much of it back.
In a 2004 deal brokered by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell — who had also mediated disputes in Northern Ireland and the Middle East — the corporation bought the damaged building for $90 million, and Deutsche Bank’s building insurers agreed to pay most of the cleanup and demolition costs that exceeded $45 million.
This week’s community board meeting was less contentious than last week’s L.M.D.C., meeting, but the frustration level remains.
“I would love to look out and not see that building there,” said Kathleen Moore, who lives next door. “It just seems to take forever.”
With reporting by Julie Shapiro
