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November 9, 2007
Bricks fall — again — from Ratner-owned building
The Brooklyn Paper
By Zachary Kolodin
Here's the latest on last week's evacuation of a Ratner-owned building:
Tenants in a building slated to be torn down to make way for Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards ran for their lives last Wednesday as bricks fell from the building’s facade — the second time in the last three months that a Ratner-owned building suffered a partial collapse during demolition.
No one was injured, but residents of 540 Vanderbilt Ave. were temporarily evacuated. Tenants were largely left in the dark during the evacuation, according to John Corless, a resident.
But the Department of Buildings said residents had nothing to worry about, at least in the short term, The fallen bricks were not vital to the structural integrity of the building, which is near the southwest corner of Vanderbilt Yards, the train yard that Ratner wants to turn into a 16-skyscraper, arena, hotel, office building and apartment mini-city.
Ratner bought 540 Vanderbilt Ave. in 2005, and inherited the buiding’s rent-stabilized tenants. To evict them, Ratner must win approval from the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
Posted by lumi at November 9, 2007 6:36 AM