Walk on any street in NYC and sooner or later you'll come across a building that's just standing there empty, disused, a total waste of space. Sometimes the contrast between the thriving storefronts and busy entryways to other buildings is striking -- these buildings just ... exist .. abandoned ... living a hopeless real estate limbo.
Every empty building in NYC has a story behind it. Often there's a legal tangle between the owners, the city, community groups, and others -- along with various financial problems -- that leads to years, even decades (!) of litigation and other fights ... and all the while the building in question just sits there, forlorn, the ugly duckling on the block.
One such example is in the East Village. An old school building (the former P.S. 64) has been in the middle of a contentious real estate fight since 1998 ever since it was put up for auction. That's right, for nearly a quarter of a century this building smack dab in the heart of one of Manhattan's prime neighborhoods has sat vacant as legal fights and foreclosures and all sorts of stuff has gone on.
It's a lesson on how real estate in NYC, that most valuable of items, can lead to Dickensian battles that span a generation -- a rumble not on the streets but on the structures that loom over them.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please keep it civil, intelligent, and expletive-free. Otherwise, opine away.