Brooklyn Heights

Clark Street eyesore slapped with Buildings Department violations

Eye On Real Estate

August 26, 2015 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
The half-demolished house at right is 100 Clark St., which the Buildings Department has slapped with notices of violations. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan
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Eyesore alert!

The half-demolished historic house at 100 Clark St. has been slapped with new notices of city Buildings Department violations.

In July, the agency’s Emergency Response Team cited landlord Newcastle Realty Services for failure to maintain the Brooklyn Heights building, noting a “partial open roof” and cracked façade and instructing the developer to make repairs “forthwith.” The Scaffold Safety Team issued notices of violations concerning a sidewalk shed and a construction fence.

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Write-ups by the Buildings Department, which is in charge of keeping the city’s built environment a safe one, are worth paying attention to when the property in question is this one on the corner of Clark Street and Monroe Place.

This leftover stump of a building blights an otherwise lovely landmarked row of homes on Monroe Place. The 1852-vintage Greek Revival home was sooo badly neglected by a previous owner that the Buildings Department sent a wrecking crew to tear it down on Memorial Day weekend of 2008, citing danger to residents.

The house was half gone by the time court action halted its complete obliteration.

Fast-forward to August 2015. Newcastle Realty Services has owned 100 Clark for five years. (The developer purchased it for $1.25 million, by the way.)

When we checked in with Newcastle’s spokesman a year and a half ago, we were told that restoration and rebuilding would start ASAP. It hasn’t happened yet.

We just asked the spokesman, George Arzt: What’s Newcastle going to do about the July Buildings Department violations notices?

And when is Newcastle’s rebuilding project going to get underway?

He offered a single sentence to answer both questions.

“We are working with the Department of Buildings toward approval of our plans,” he said.

We went over to look at 100 Clark the other day, which made our eyeballs ache. As an antidote, we headed to the Promenade a few blocks away for a dose of its vibrant views. Take a look at some of the things we saw.


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