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The Department of Buildings continues to investigate what caused a four-story Clinton Hill building to collapse on Sunday. DOB Commissioner Robert LiMandri told reporters, "We are right now zeroing in on what happened, what work was being done and what caused the building to collapse."
Referring to how the DOB issued a complaint for a 3-story exterior wall crack for 493 Myrtle Avenue but allowed the owner to keep tenants in the building, LiMandri added, "We go to buildings every day of the week [and] we make these decisions as we go. At the time of inspection, the decision we made is that we did not need an immediate vacate order."
According to the NY Times, "Neighbors said they saw workers using a jackhammer on the building at 493 Myrtle Avenue early Sunday as they worked to repair cracks to the structure’s outer wall. That afternoon, residents heard rumbling and saw bricks fall from the building’s facade moments before the structure collapsed." The Daily News adds that the general contractor didn't have a permit (the DOB will check to see whether it should have had one).
The building at 493 Myrtle had been holding up its neighbor, 491 Myrtle Avenue, and the DOB ordered that 491 Myrtle be razed, leaving its dozen tenants homeless. The buildings at 497 and 489 are also vacant, until further notice. Jose Diaz, 491 Myrtle resident, told the Times the cracks at 493 Myrtle “were pretty wide" and that the building frequently shook. He added, "I lost everything. I have to start all over again from scratch."
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The partial collapse on Court Street from a few weeks back is still standing. Any updates?
I work right near by (and used to frequent Vesper for happy hour) and this morning the workers were removing the 3rd story of 491 Myrtle. It was sad, the worker up there was just throwing the occupant's belongings down to the street. I hope these tenants had renter's insurance!
I saw that this morning too, but I read later that the workers are saving some possessions. There is a chance the city might demolish 489 Myrtle now too.
typical new york landlord = 150 years of neglect = collapsed building. i feel bad for the employees and tenants..but this story is as old as new york itself and corruption in albany...