Rizzo (far left) consults with City Engineer Dick Miller (far right) in the Emergency Operations Center.
A downtown clothing store was forced to shut its doors Tuesday, becoming the second building to take a serious hit from Winter Storm Nemo, according to city Building Official Andy Rizzo.
The 34 inches of snow from the storm put J. Press, a high-end men’s clothier in Yale’s Broadway shopping district, in danger of collapse, Rizzo reported Tuesday afternoon.
The building was evacuated safely; Rizzo ordered it closed.
Rizzo said he showed up at the three-story building at 262 York St. at 11 a.m. Tuesday to meet with J. Press’s structural engineer. The brick building is over a century old. It’s owned by J. Press Incorporated, which Rizzo described as a Japanese LLC based in New York.
“The building had been having some problems over the last several months,” Rizzo said. “Portions of the building and floors were sagging.” Portions of the facade on third floor were pulling away from the building, which was indicative of “structural failing.”
Rizzo determined “there was a possibility of collapse.”
“I declared it unsafe” and ordered it closed, he said.
Rizzo said J. Press was already planning to relocate its store elsewhere in the city, though not for another month or so.
Parker Collins Photo
No one lives in the building, Rizzo said. So the evacuation did not involve relocating families, unlike Monday night, when snow put a Westville apartment building in danger of collapse, displacing 25 people.
Rizzo reported that the owners of that Westville building, 335 Fountain St., got up on the roof Tuesday to remove snow and “shore up the roof.” Tenants were allowed to get back in to retrieve belongings, and they may get to move back in.
“The building will be saved,” Rizzo said.