1 Monroe Place aka 100 Clark Street Set for a Facelift

By on March 25, 2014 6:48 am in Landmark Preservation

The neighborhood eyesore at 100 Clark Street (aka 1 Monroe Place) will get a new stoop, staircase, a restored mansard roof courtesy of owner Newcastle Realty Services. The Brooklyn Eagle also reports that floors lost due to neglect will also be replaced. DOB approval is pending.

Crews demolish 100 Clark Street’s original mansard roof in 2008. BHB photo by Homer Fink

Brooklyn Eagle: What has taken Newcastle – which paid $1.25 million for what’s left of the 1850s-vintage Greek Revival property in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District – so long to get started on the reconstruction?

Money “is not the issue,” [DOB spokesperson George] Arzt said. “It’s the complexity of the job.”

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  • Karl Junkersfeld

    My guess is negotiations with the 3 rent regulated tenants that were displaced by the demolition was a major sticky point. I would be curious if they settled with Newcastle and if so how much they received in compensation.

  • stuart

    the two former tenants who would not leave the building until the DOB was quite literally knocking it down over their heads have been the sticking point here. Even though they rarely paid rent they claim ownership rights of some kind. Now that they have been bought out or whatever the owner can rebuild the site. The new building will be more or less a replica of the old one. It should be fine.

  • Martin L Schneider

    I was at the mid-street meeting six long years ago when it was determined to have the city immediately stop tearing down the dangerous building in favor of it being “restored.” As a result,

    we have endured this neglected, rat-infested, eye-sore for six years. The owner’s claim that “it isn’t the money, it’s the complexity” rings very , very hollow.

    Landmarks approved this particular plan or something much like it, two or three years ago.

    The dragged out negotiations with the greedy ex-tenants would not have been so prolonged had the builders really had the will to build. Similarly, another delay excuse that the water dept. hadn’t the records is implausible and lame.

    These various excuses certainly do not justify the years-long imposition on the neighborhood of a derelict mess. With that sad history just behind us, I am not counting our chickens until they are hatched. Of course, I hope I am being overly-pessimistic and will quickly be proved wrong.

  • Eddyde

    Actually, it’s not a hollow excuse. Issues with the DoB can be nightmarish quagmire and indeed take years to remedy. Add to that, the complication of the ex tenants and the years of delay do not seem so unreasonable.