East Broadway Construction Site Reactivates Months After Destabilization Scare
An East Broadway construction site just reactivated, more than two months after excavation work was thought to have destabilized the adjacent tenement at 205 East Broadway. The city-issued stop-work order was lifted in mid-August.
It is here at 201-203 East Broadway that local developer Daniel Wise – who purchased the double-wide properties in 2015 for $8.5 million – is building the area’s first modular apartment complex. Plans call for seven stories stacked with ten apartments. Each pre-fab condo unit will carry approximately 1,487 square-feet, some with private terraces. The ground floor and basement spaces will offer 3,617 square-feet of commercial and 1,968 square-feet of medical office space.
After the historic buildings were cleared away, though, work apparently got off on the wrong foot.
Neighbors residing in 205 East Broadway, an HDFC co-op purchased from the city in 1981, complained about their building shaking back in June. Engineers from the Department of Buildings were dispatched, and concluded that there was no immediate danger of collapse. There was also a brief vacate order on the site. The full stop-work order issued to the developer was later knocked down to a partial order that allowed owners of both properties to have contractors conduct emergency stabilization tests and/or repairs. The order was fully rescinded a few weeks ago.
The former property owner of 201-203 East Broadway was the United Hebrew Community, a nonprofit Jewish organization founded in 1901. It purchased the the twin tenements shortly after organizing, and occupied 15,000 square-feet of space. Both were constructed in 1837 and subsequently modifed in 1900. Upon its inception, the UHC differed from other “landsmenshaften” burial societies, which typically served immigrants from a couple of European towns; they provided services to a cross-section of the Jewish community, such as a free synagogue and proper burial for many Jews who were refused membership to other such organizations.
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