Wrecking Ball Comes (Finally) For Long Vacant Bed-Stuy Flop

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A long-vacant and crumbling property on Gates Avenue in Bed-Stuy is finally going the way of the Dodo.

A demolition permit for 906 Gates Ave. was filed earlier last month after the city's Buildings department found that the structure was falling over into the building next door, city records show.

In 2017, the building was first issued a full vacate order and several violations for a failure to maintain the property in a code-compliant manner, according to Buildings department records.

At the time of inspection, a city worker observed that the facade of the building was pulling clear off the building, immediately ordering sidewalk protection to be assembled.

Five years — and over $70,000 in Buildings department fines — later, it seems that the city has waited long enough for the owner, Fajeza Industries LLC, who bought it in 2020, to remedy the calamitous condition, records show.

The DOB considers it such a danger to neighboring buildings that it even issued a stop work order to the owner for appearing to not destroy it fast enough.

But a DOB spokesperson said the stop work order was lifted on Friday, apparently because the project's engineer, required to be on site, was sick during the time of the inspection.

If the owner was found to not be working towards smashing 906 Gates Ave. to the ground, then the DOB would have been empowered to step in with city contractors to finish the job.