Breaking News: 100 Clark Condemned

By on May 25, 2008 11:54 am in Brooklyn Heights

Update: Crews are working right now (1:34pm Sunday) on removing the top two floors of 100 Clark Street. The building was recently named by the BHA as one of several neglected buildings in Brooklyn Heights in danger of “demolition via dereliction.”

More photos after the jump:

BHB newshound “Paul” writes:

The story of the shabby building at the corner of Monroe Place and Clark has dramatically changed today.

Someone called 311 after seeing no work done on it for such a long time; inspectors came and declared it unsafe. The fire escape on the top floor, and other parts, too, are showing the walls to be bulging
so badly that they declared the building uninhabitable, and the top two floors are going to have to come off. I was out there around 5pm, talking to the site manager from I forget what office, who had
apparently had to tell the residents that they need to relocate. I didn’t know that only three people were living in the 16-unit building. They shut off gas to the building from the gas main under
the street, and numerous emergency vehicles were parked on Clark and Monroe Place, including a cherry-picker on a huge, long flatbed truck.

BHB Reader Andrew Porter directs us to this photo of 100 Clark during the Blizzard of ’88 (1888, that is) from the Brooklyn New York Public Library.

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  • Baz

    I’m surprised that building is still standing.
    The owner of the building, is basically a slumlord. She has/had a few other buildings in the Heights.

    On a humorous note: next time you’re walking down Clark St, between Henry & Hicks, look up near the Sushi place in the St George. Around the 6th floor (of the St George), someone attached a large poster of two scantily-clad women, holding one another.
    I had no idea that Landmarks has become so liberated ;)

  • T.K. Small

    I just checked the Department of buildings website and the building appears to be held by an LLC. Something called “Idlewild 94-100 Clark Street LLC”. Does this ring a bell with anybody?

  • Andrew Porter

    The photo is from the New York Public Library’s Digital Library, and permission to reproduce is given. I cropped a bit out of it. Alas, the glorious Church of the New Jerusalem on the left of the photo was another victim of Robert Moses’s “slum” clearance plans. Ironically, it’s now the site of an Orthodox Jewish Synagogue.

  • Sue R

    Finally something is being done. What a shame that such a magnificent building was allowed to deteriorate. Though working around the clock is a bit too noisy!

  • moi

    The corner of Clark & Henry, where the coffee shop is, was a church, also.
    @TK… the owner is mentioned in the article about the facade collapse, in 2004… http://www.lenells.com/files/articles/TheBrooklynPapers_27_34bp.pdf
    I’ve been inside several of their bldgs, in the Heights, etc… most were in pretty bad shape. One had an old sewer backup, in the basement, which had never been cleaned. It had dried up *human waste* all over the place. The owners should be condemned.

  • http://newyorkadventures.blogspot.com Erin

    Baz, are you sure that the poster is still hanging on the dorm? I live across the street from the dorm and recently found a giant paper airplane on my balcony made from a poster of scantily-clad women! Quite a surprise!

    Was so sorry to see everyone move out last weekend;-)

  • ccd

    Wake up everyone! This building is owned by The Penson Corp. owned by Edward Penson, a wealthy developer! The Penson Corp owned The Candy Factory building on Middagh Street. This was a Mitchell-lama building, offering affordable housing to artists. Look at what happened there! He got everyone out, just like he has now done with 1 Monroe Pl, only in a different manner, by getting the building condemned. This is happening throughout the city! Landlords and developers are waging an assault tenants living in rent regulated buildings, slowly eating away at rent stabilized and controlled apartments. They are either breaking the law by warehousing empty apartments, taking months and years to fix “violations” or getting the building “condemned” in the hopes of tenants moving out and not returning, not renewing leases, claiming that they need the building for their families, (meanwhile owning other apartments or buildings) and harassing tenants in any number of ways!
    Our local politicians are guilty of aiding and abetting the landlords and developers!
    This onslaught on hard-working, middle-class, blue-collar and lower-income New Yorkers by property owners, often wealthy and politically-connected needs to stop!

  • ABC

    I don’t really think Mitchell-Lama housing is/was around to give affordable housing to artists. It provides affordable housing for x number of years and then turns market. In exchange for providing 20 years (or whatever) of affordable housing, the developer received favorable terms from the city (financing, taxes, etc). These kinds of projects will only continue if both sides respect the agreement. When the term is up, the term is up. Fair is fair.

    The 1 Monroe story, on the other hand, is completely different and criminal. I wonder what buy-out the remaining rent-stabilized apartments were asking for (per the NY Post) and why on earth these guys wouldn’t pay it? It can’t have been that much, can it?

  • Baz

    @Erin… yup, it’s still there, although one corner of it has detached.
    It’s the main St George Bldg, across from where the Bagel Store was. If you wait a few days, it’ll probably be on the street, for closer examination ;)
    For me, part of me wishes the Dorms were what was collapsing.
    Those kids are always screaming on Clark St, at all hours, & the St George will do nothing about it… same with the Police.

    As for 100 Clark, it’s astounding to me, that these Penson people bought that property, from the original slumlords… who owned it, when the wall collapsed in ’04.
    Agreed, ccd. It’ll take tenants being killed, for the Pols to act on this sleaze.