Look Out! 6 ​“Unsafe Structures” Cited

A Howard Avenue barbershop has been reduced to a dusty pile of wood and bricks.

Two fire-damaged Sheffield Avenue homes are boarded up and awaiting repairs.

And the old clock factory on Hamilton Street has a collapsed rear wall, 20 leaking oil drums, a corner apron of fallen bricks — and no construction workers in sight.

City building inspectors have their eyes on those derelict properties and more, according to a half dozen newly issued ​“unsafe structure” notices filed by the Building Department on the city land records database.

All of those notices mention various violations of Section 116 of the Connecticut State Building Code.

All of the notices order the landlords in question to start pulling permits and conducting emergency rehab work soon, or face potential financial and legal consequences.

“Be advised that the Building Official is authorized to prosecute any violation of this order by requesting that legal counsel of the jurisdiction, or the Office of the State’s Attorney, institute the appropriate proceeding at law,” a section of each notice reads.

“Any person who is convicted in a court of law of violating any provision of the Connecticut State Building Code or for failure to comply with the written order of a building inspector for the provision of additional exit facilities in a building, the repair or alteration of a building or the removal of a building or any portion thereof shall be fined not less than two hundred not more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than six months or both.”

These various ​“unsafe structure” notices all come as the city continues to tear down unsafe structures of its own: four collapsing, decrepit, long-neglected, and historically significant former Bigelow Boiler Factory buildings on River Street between James and Lloyd Streets.

Demolition of those four structures began last week. By Monday, so-called Buildings 1 and 3 had already been taken down. The hollowed out, two-and-a-half-story Building 2 and a small garage known as Building 5 are also in the process of being demolished. The three-story Building 4, meanwhile, will remain standing, with the city hoping that the restoration company Capasso will be able to one day bring new life to that structure.

Clock Factory Crumble Continues

On July 2, the city reissued an ​“unsafe structure” notice to Taom Heritage New Haven LLC, a holding company controlled by Reed Community Partners LLC.

That’s the Portland, Oregon-based redevelopment company that owns the dilapidated former clock factory at 133 Hamilton St. For years, the company has promised to convert the old industrial site into 130 affordable apartments, with many of those units reserved for artists. In 2018, they won Board of Alders support for the project, as well as $800,000 in city-managed federal funds to help with the site’s environmental remediation.

The July 2 Building Department notice states that city Demolition Officer inspected the property on Oct. 7, 2020, and found that ​“the structure is open to trespass with a collapsed rear brick wall and fence as well as 20 or more abandoned oil drums that are leaking, causing an endangerment to public safety and welfare.”

The notice orders the landlord to remedy the issue within 10 days. The notice was first sent out on Oct. 9, 2020, and then re-issued on July 2.

In a separate ​“unsafe structure” notice sent to Reed Community Partners on Jan. 22 of this year, city Building Official Jim Turcio wrote that a Jan. 21 inspection of the Hamilton Street site revealed ​“bricks falling off the structure onto the sidewalk and into the street at the corner of St. John and Wallace Street.” That notice also ordered the landlord to fix the problem within 10 days.

During a phone interview with the Independent Monday, Turcio said the city has received nothing but ​“deafening silence” from the clock factory owners about these unsafe structure notices. ​“We have not heard back from them.”

Asked if the property has gotten any better or worse since the Building Department first issued these notices, Turcio said, ​“It’s not gonna get better soon” if the landlord continues to leave the property untouched, as currently appears to be the case.

Representatives from Reed Community Partners did not respond to requests for comment by the publication time of this article.

The city’s building permit database shows that the last two permits pulled for 133 Hamilton St. were in July 2018, for a combined $30,000 worth of work for swapping out existing antenna equipment, and then electrical cable and wire upgrades for communication antenna equipment.

Barbershop Demolished On Howard

On Aug. 11, the Building Department issued a final notice for an unsafe structure at 278 Howard Ave., Unit 276‑A.

That was the home of Barbershop LaFamilia.

According to the city notice, city Demolition Officer Romero inspected the property on July 1. He found that ​“the entire roof [of[ Unit 276‑A, Barbershop LaFamilia has collapsed. Owner must provide structural plans for approval prior to obtaining a building permit for repairs.”

The notice orders the landlord, 276 Howard LLC — a holding company controlled by Julia and Ayman Kaoud of Orange — to pull a building permit for the necessary demolition work within 10 days.

On Monday afternoon, a demolition crew from PGR Construction was busy tearing down the former barbershop space.

“We’re tearing it down and rebuilding,” PGR’s Mark Dappacoda said. He said the demolition work began two days ago, and should take a few more days to complete.

Neighbor William Corey watched the excavator and hard-hatted demolition workers tear the building apart from the front porch of his home next door. He said he has lived at that Howard Avenue address for 50 years. From what he can remember, the barbershop was a good neighbor.

How does it feel living next door to an active demolition and construction site?

“It’s kind of noisy,” he said.

Turcio told the Independent that it took the landlord a while to get a structural engineer for the demolition and construction project. Now that’s ​“all under the structural engineer’s purview,” with his department swinging by for inspections to make sure all’s going according to plan.

According to the city’s online building permit database, on Sept. 9, the landlord pulled a permit to remove the first floor and the left side of the second floor of a portion of a collapsed building. The permit estimates that the demolition work will cost roughly $10,000. The permit also states that another permit will be required for the rebuilding of the damaged portions of the structure.

Fire-Damaged Properties Boarded Up On Sheffield

On Aug. 18, the Building Department sent two unsafe structure notices to the owners of the adjacent three-family homes at 25 and 21 Sheffield Ave.

Both of those homes are currently boarded up following an Aug. 17 fire at 25 Sheffield Ave. that displaced 17 tenants.

The unsafe structure notice sent to 25 Sheffield’s owner, Jesse Browning, states that an Aug. 17 inspection by Romero revealed that the building was in ​“imminent danger of failure or collapse”.

The notice states that ​“there is severe fire damages to 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor dwelling units. The roof is fire damaged at gable walls, valley, eaves, front ridge, and the front porch roof. All front rooms are also fire damaged.”

That notice ordered Browning to immediately secure the property from further entry, and to immediately start working with a licensed demolition contractor to address the most dangerous parts of the fire-damaged building.

The city’s building permit database shows that, on Aug. 18, Browning pulled a permit for an estimated $20,000 worth of work — including for removing the front gable walls, roof area portion of the chimney, and the roof over front porch, and to secure the building.

The separate Aug. 18 notice sent to Mandy Management and its affiliate company RMB1 LLC about 21 Sheffield also identified that neighboring structure as in imminent danger of failure or collapse.

The notice states that the building suffers from ​“exterior siding damages, broken windows, and interior water damages.” It orders Mandy to immediately secure the property and, within 30 days, start working with a licensed demolition contractor to address the relevant parts of the damaged building.

The landlord has not yet pulled any permits for 21 Sheffield, per the city’s permit database.

Browning could not be reached for comment by the publication time of this article.

Turcio said that Browning has indeed undertaken some of the demolition work he needs to make 25 Sheffield safer than it was immediately after the fire. He said that both 21 and 25 Sheffield are salvageable, in theory, but both landlords have to first present rehabilitation plans to the city before they can start working on making those properties habitable again.

“So far we boarded up the building to make sure no one gets inside,” Mandy Management’s Yudi Gurevitch told the Independent about 21 Sheffield. ​“We are still waiting on the insurance company (which should be all set in the next week or two) and then we will pull permit for the repair work that needs to be done.”

500 Blake Hole Filled; Waiting For Construction To Begin

On Aug. 11, the Building Department sent an unsafe structure notice to Shmuel Aizenberg and the Ocean Management-controlled holding company that owns 500 Blake St.

That’s the site of a now-demolished former restaurant in Westville where Ocean plans to build 129 new market-rate apartments.

The Building Department notice states that Romero inspected the property on Aug. 1, and found on that date an ​“exposed foundation which is an endangerment to public safety and welfare.”

The notice orders Ocean to ​“backfill site to prevent collapse of sidewalk and adjacent parking area.”

Turcio told the Independent that Ocean has already complied with the order and filled in the hole that was previously at the 500 Blake development site. He said the city is hopeful that Ocean will start pulling permits soon to actually begin construction work at the site, which has remained empty and devoid of activity for months.

Ocean Management-hired project manager Melissa Saint confirmed for the Independent that Ocean has filled the hole at 500 Blake, per the city’s order.

She said the landlord also ​“just completed a peer review required for the city to pull permits. I expect that permit will be submitted Thursday or Friday of this week” and that the developer will be ready to start building by Oct. 1.

The only other unsafe structure notice filed by the city Building Department in the past few months was sent out on July 28 to Navarino Property Management LLC. The notice stated that a July 27 inspection of the two-building, 28-unit residential complex at 120 Diamond St. revealed that a portion of one of the buildings was unsafe because ​“a car hit the front of the building removing the front entry doors and some structural damage to front wall of building.”

The city’s building permit database shows that, on Aug. 10, the landlord pulled a permit for an estimated $9,100 worth of work, including repairing damage to units 152 – 154 that was caused when a car drove into the building. That entailed replacing the front doors and screen doors, porch roof column, sheathing, siding, trims, associated framing members, plywood subfloor, insulation, sheetrock, and painting.