12 Years And Counting: Yet Another Stop Work Order For The 232 Smith Street Construction Site

How many years, how many stop work orders and how many violations will it take before the planned two-story building at 232-240 Smith Street will be completed?

For almost twelve years now, a wooden fence has surrounded the empty lot at the corner of Smith and Douglass Street. The long saga of this construction site started with the demolition of several one story buildings that housed a few stores and a then-popular Argentinian restaurant named Sur that helped spark Smith Street's revival.  During a decade, nothing happened on the lot except for violations handed out by the NYC Department Of Buildings for 'failure to maintain construction fence."

Finally, in 2015, Commercial Observer reported that "Madison Realty Capital provided Brooklyn-based Second Development Services with a short-term $9 million loan for the acquisition and development of 232 Smith Street." Louis Greco of SDS told the Observer that he is planning a 15,000-square-foot retail building on the site. 

D.o.B. permits were filed by OCV Architects shortly afterwards and by the fall of 2016 work finally began and... stopped. Within weeks, the D.o.B. issued a stop work order for "failure to notify DOB within 24-48 hours of the start of excavation" and for 'failure to safeguard all persons and property" as well as " doing damage to the adjacent building."

Since then, the site has been an open dirt pit that regularly fills with water. It appeared lately that the contractor was ready to begin work again, and the site was promptly hit with yet another complete stop work order on February 21. This newest one seems to be related to the sewer line and sewer water that needs to be pumped out of the site.

To this date, 232-240 Smith Street has amassed an impressive 97 complaints, 48 D.O.B. violations and 72 Environmental Control Board (ECB) violations, of which four are still currently open. Most of these were issued since 2006, when the property changed hands.

It had been announced to the community that a Crunch Fitness would be the tenant in this new building. At the rate construction is going, it will be a while before the gym opens.

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Construction Has Finally Begun On The Long Neglected Lot At The Corner Of Smith And Douglass Streets

More than ten years ago, a one story building at 232-240 Smith Street at the corner of Douglass Street was demolished.   The building housed several stores and a then-popular Argentinian restaurant named Sur that helped spark Smith Street's revival.
During all this time, the large empty lot  has amassed an impressive amount of violations from NYC Department Of Buildings, including violations for 'failure to maintain construction fence." In  fact, the wooden construction fence, when not in the process of collapsing,  has blocked most of the sidewalk along Smith Street, which has become a pet peeve amongst many local residents.
Finally, in 2015, Commercial Observer reported that "Madison Realty Capital provided Brooklyn-based Second Development Services with a short-term $9 million loan for the acquisition and development of 232 Smith Street."  Louis Greco of SDS told the Observer that he is planning a 15,000-square-foot retail building on the site. In recent months, D.o.B. permits have been filed by OCV Architects for a two story structure.

A few days ago, reader Mary reached out to PMFA to say that equipment has been moved into the empty lot.  Yesterday, a crew was working on the site.

Are you glad to see that something is finally being done with that lot?

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