Historic Red Hook Building Demolition Continues Despite DOB Order

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN — Advocates and elected officials are rallying behind a historic Red Hook building that owners have kept trying to demolish despite orders from the city to stop any construction.

The fight to have the S.W. Bowne Grain Storage warehouse, first built in 1886 on Smith Street, declared a landmark to protect it from being torn down has picked up steam this week as activists noticed workers putting up demolition scaffolding over the weekend. It is the latest in illegal construction at the site since the Department of Buildings issued a stop-work order for the building last June.

The Gowanus Landmarking Coalition and Councilman Carlos Menchaca held a press conference Wednesday to call on the owners to not only stop the illegal construction, but find a way to save the building altogether.

"How a demolition permit was granted by DOB in February 2019 remains a mystery...The building is now at risk of being lost entirely after standing since the 1880s," the Gowanus Landmarking Coalition said. "Losing this building would be a regrettable shame."

The owners of the building, the Chetrit Group, first started to demolish the building last June without a proper permit, a Abigail Kunitz, a DOB spokesperson said.

And, even though they were eventually given a demolition permit earlier this year, owners still didn't go through the required process to remedy the first violation and have the stop-order lifted.

Kunitz added that inspectors visited the building three times in the last week — March 5, 9 and 11 — after hearing that demolition work was continuing. Each time, inspectors found evidence of construction and issued violations.

Advocates argue that it is unclear what the owners have planned for the property, which is currently zoned as a manufacturing site, or why the building needs to be torn down.

They argue that the developers should take note of methods used on other historic brick buildings in Dumbo or Red Hook to figure out how to renovate the building while still preserving its history.

"This imposing structure at the mouth of the Gowanus Canal is one of the few surviving traces of the brick warehouses that ringed the South Brooklyn shore for about a century starting in the late 1800s," they said.

The activists also worry, they said, given that an investigation into a fire at the building in June is ongoing. FDNY has said the fire appears to have been intentionally set, officials told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Menchaca has previously argued that the fire seemed suspicious given that it happened around the time activists first started to raise questions about the buildings demolition.

DOB officials told the Eagle that the Chetrit Group could face a court summons if they continue to violate the stop work orders at the property. The Chetrit Group did not return a request for comment.