I came in like a wrecking ball …. on Clark Street

Eye On Real Estate

March 19, 2014 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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What a mess!

Brooklyn Heights residents remember Memorial Day weekend of 2008, when the wrecking crew descended on 100 Clark St.

This Eagle photo by Mary Frost shows the remnants of a tenant’s belongings exposed to the open air after the brick wall of the apartment house was ripped away.

The city Buildings Department decided the decrepit building in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District was a danger to residents and set out to tear the place down.

The plan was to demolish the entire five-story building, as the Brooklyn Eagle reported at the time – but the Penson Cos., which then owned the building, went to court. By the time the Demolition Derby was halted, two and a half floors of the 1850s-vintage property were gone baby gone.

The following year, Edward Penson and the LLC through which he owned 100 Clark sued the Buildings Department in Kings County Supreme Court, alleging, among other things, that the city agency’s actions had violated their constitutional right to due process and resulted in “an unlawful taking.”

The case was dismissed in 2010.