Languishing Properties Sprawl in Public Space

At what used to be the historic Kean Residence, on the corner of East 65th Street and Lexington Avenue, a construction project languishes. Old buildings have been demolished, but nothing new has risen, and the project is stalled because the site"s owner is reportedly facing bankruptcy. The site is blocked from street view by a tall plywood fence, now plastered with illegally placed movie posters and ads, and barriers spill onto swaths of sidewalk along both 65th and Lexington. Pedestrians are forced to walk on a narrow path between orange-and-white dividers and construction barriers. â??The walking area protrudes into the street, narrows traffic and is somewhat more dangerous, said Dr. Joel Mindel, who lives on East 64th Street. His concerns are safety and aesthetics, although he also worries about the practical day-to-day issues that residents face on the sidewalk. â??I walk my dog, he said. â??When walking in that narrowed area, what happens if an unfriendly dog meets me half way? But it"s not just inconvenience that Mindel and other neighbors are concerned about when it comes to absentee owners and landlords's of which there are several in the vicinity. He also worries that the appearance of the empty lot and the blocked sidewalk could harm small businesses in the immediate area, which depend to some degree on foot traffic. While the Department of Transportation regulates sidewalk space, and the Department of Buildings regulates construction sites, owners seem to have great leeway in encroaching on public space with stalled construction projects. In the case of the former Kean Residence, the building site has been issued the proper permits to occupy the sidewalk. â??DOT reviews and reissues permits according to the needs for facilitating the project. The developer/contractor informed us that work is scheduled to resume soon, said Scott Gastel, a department spokesperson. Gastel did not elaborate on the process for reissuing permits to idle sites. Carly Sullivan of the Department of Buildings said that there is a unit specifically designated for stalled constructions projects. Recent legislation allows for sites to qualify for permit extensions of up to four years while stalled, if they submit and adhere to a construction safety plan and pass all inspections. But the Kean site isn"t yet considered stalled. â??Stalled sites are similar to active construction sites, Sullivan said. â??They still need to be maintained the same way, they still need to be kept safe the same way. Ken Laub is chairman of the East 64th Street Lexington to 3rd Avenue Neighbors Association, which has raised money for street improvements like tree pits and old-fashioned lamps. Laub points out another site that he says plagues the neighborhood. The building on the southwest corner of East 64th Street and Lexington Avenue, a five-story commercial property, has been empty for almost five years. Laub and other residents say that the building"s owner, GEF Corporation, doesn"t maintain the property and makes no effort to rent it to viable businesses. Andrea D"Alessandro, a representative of GEF Corporation, said that the company has been actively seeking to rent the space. â??There have been many negotiations with different parties, D"Alessandro said. â??Due to the market, it"s been very difficult to get the right tenant for the building. We"ve been trying for years now. Different deals have fallen through for different reasons. Neighbors claim that French businessman Alex Bongrain actually owns the building, and that since he is abroad much of the time, he doesn"t want to invest in the property. D"Alessandro said that Bongrain is â??possibly involved with the corporation, but said that he is not the legal owner. â??He can afford to be selfish, but who suffers the most? The community, Laub said about Bongrain. â??He doesn"t wish to invest any monies into that property to fix it up. Maybe we can finally get him to recognize that this is a community. Sometimes languishing properties can be downright hazardous. Farther north, at the southeast corner of East 79th Street and Third Avenue, another empty construction site sits, hidden by wooden fencing. Commercial owners are responsible for maintaining the sidewalks in front of their properties, according to the city, but East Sider Julia Wilkie said the property was in poor shape last month during the spate of blizzards and ice storms. As she was leaving Chase Bank on the opposite corner in the middle of February, she found herself on the icy sidewalk in front of the construction site, owned by Skyline Development. â??All the sudden, I realized I was on the sidewalk, and it was really slick, and I thought, â??How do I get off of this?" Wilkie recalled. â??And I fell and I fractured my tibia. Now she"s in a full-leg cast and can"t walk. Wilkie said that she"s never seen the site maintained, but when she called Skyline Development, they told her that it had been kept up. David Malitzky of Skyline Development declined to comment for this story. Wilkie said that she has not pursued a lawsuit at this point, but she wanted to get the name of the company"s insurance carrier and inform them of what happened. â??When I fell, I didn"t call the police, I didn"t take the people"s names [who helped me], she said. â??I really didn"t think. The East 79th Street site also has up-to-date permits, and is not listed on the department"s stalled site list. So for now, residents will just have to sit tight until developers resume work, or the city can take action.