Written by Lincoln Anderson | Take that wrecking ball!
The city says a Little Italy building damaged by illegal construction last week must be demolished, but the family that owns the building insists the historic structure can be saved.
The building owner is Stable Realty, LLC.
After a construction accident, the Stabile family, which has owned Little Italy property for generations, had an independent engineer inspect 188 Grand Street. The engineer concluded that this was a shockingly bad decision by the city and that the building did not need to be inspected. It may be destroyed, but it can be “easily and safely saved.”
Andrew Bench, a representative for the family, told the Village Sun that the collapsed section was an old internal chimney stack within the walls of a building on Mulberry Street. Since it was a chimney space, the bricks were thin, only two bricks thick instead of his four.
Bench said the second floor did not collapse, contrary to what former commercial tenant Karen King, owner of Areva Dairy, said in a subsequent statement.
“The chimney just fell down,” he explained.
Attorney Bench is the District Attorney of Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is currently one of his four presidents of his four affiliated families who hold ownership interests in Stable Realty LLC. His family has owned his four-story building at Grand and Mulberry streets for more than 100 years.
Bench said local residents were protesting the building authority’s order to demolish the building, which in turn prompted Stabile’s descendants to push back against the decision. The cost of emergency demolition must be paid by the homeowner, regardless of whether the contract was contracted by the homeowner or the city.
The Rust Belt Attorney’s Office acknowledged that the family owners of the real estate LLC had previously “pretty much resigned themselves to the fate that the building would have to do what the city said it would do.” [be demolished] — even if we don’t believe it [has to be done]”
But local resistance groups changed their minds.
“The Ministry of Buildings has ordered the building to be demolished,” he said. “Quite a few people in Little Italy don’t want that. We’re going to try to preserve this building as much as possible.”
Local activists reportedly plan to hold a protest at the site around 9am on Tuesday morning.
For more than 80 years, this first-floor space was home to Alleva Dairy, America’s oldest cheese store. Areva vacated the space in March after reaching a settlement over overdue rent, which had been depressed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In July, Stabil Realty LLC leased the space to Amici Restaurant Group, which operates other eateries in Little Italy, with plans to set up a restaurant there, Bench said. That’s what it means. But he said the terms of the lease specify that construction plans must first be approved by the city before any work can be done. He said the landlord toured the space in October and discovered that renovation work had already been done, so he ordered the work to stop. However, he said the tenants continued to work illegally.
The DOB said the wall collapse was caused by illegal and unauthorized renovation work that did not have the proper permits from the city.
Bench confirmed that Stabil Realty LLC plans to file a lawsuit, but did not want to discuss the matter in detail with the Village Sun at this time.
Stabile historically owned much of the heart of Little Italy and was once a well-known name in the community.
“We’ve lived in that community for 160 years and we don’t want to go anywhere,” Bench said. “Stabil Realty owned his two blocks in Little Italy at one point.”
In the 1800s, Stabile was an agent arranging steamships to New York City for Italian immigrants, as well as a landlord who housed the new immigrants in his own homes. The company also provided Banca Stabile for them to deposit their money. The former bank space is now the Italian American Museum at 151 Grand Street.
Of the once extensive property, the family now owns only two buildings in the historic district, the rest having been sold over the years. The upper floors of 188 Grand St. are home to The Farm Soho, a coworking office space. Bench said there were people inside when part of the building collapsed late on a weekday afternoon, but no one was injured. The family’s other remaining building contains residential apartments, where some longtime rent-regulated tenants pay as little as $400 a month, he said.