Building Across Union Street from Gowanus Holiday Inn Emptied
We don't know what's going on at 588 Union Street--which is across the street from the new Gowanus Holiday Inn--except that a reader emailed us with the following:
If you haven't seen, check out 588 Union St-- just a coincidence that it's across from the Holiday Inn but...You'll hear from me again if anyone threatens Holy Land Auto Repair next door, hah.We stopped by this weekend and shot the image above of the now-boarded up building. Records show the building was built in 1931 and is owned by Cbbbs Hosiery Corp. The last sale record for the building we were able to find was in 2001. It certainly appears as if the now-former tenants of the building are the latest victims of the slow creep of gentrification through Gowanus.
posted by rsguskind at 11:10 AM
5 Comments:
I live two doors down.
The city labeled the building as structurally unsafe. If you stand in front of the building and look to the right of the front door you'll see large cracks running throughout the brickwork.
The tenants only had 24 hrs notice to move out. It was quite a scene about 2 weeks ago with around 5 Budget Vans lined up, along with several cops.
i thought i saw you snapping photos on my block this weekend!
Like the previous commenter said, it was quite a sight the night the enormous moving trucks pulled up on the street and they literally threw everyone out of the building. The notice that was posted on the front of the building said the back half was sinking at a steady rate.
My landlord is the owner of the diner on the corner and it was the topic of conversation that weekend. Many people said, though offered no proof, that the owner had known for sometime (as much as a year) but had given no warning to the tenants.
I happened to walk by the other day, and the evacuation notice listed cause as the building leaning a certain % off center as I remember (wording may be wrong but that was the gist of it)... and then I looked at it and it was seriously sitting back on it's haunches, but didn't seem to be any more than the two buildings across the street next to the Holiday Inn. But it was a city owned building from want I could gather from the notice. In any event, Holiday Inn's primary business is real estate, the hotel business generally just provided income until properties appreciate enough to redevelop.
the building has 3 current pending violations with the environmental contrl board for hazardous conditions relating to the leaning off center. see the first 3 violations at http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/ECBQueryByLocationServlet?requestid=1&allbin=3007367.
and don't you think that this is not gentrification, but rather, the result of old, poorly maintained construction?
Rent stabilization did not help this either. The repairs that this building needs are very significant and it would have been difficult for the owner to cover his costs since he would be unable to raise the rents more than a nominal amount.
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