One Developer May Own As Many as
26 Such Sites
By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BAY RIDGE — Abandoned, unfinished and poorly maintained properties are plaguing Bay Ridge, with complaints about these “eyesores” from residents.
“There are many unfinished and vacant buildings in Bay Ridge,” said Joanne Seminara, chair of the Land Use and Zoning Committee of Community Board 10 at its meeting on Monday. There have been 30 reports to the board of projects either uncompleted or abandoned. These reports call them eyesores and maybe unsafe.
The issue came up in Seminara’s report at the Board 10 meeting on Monday evening at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Dyker Heights. “One of the worst situations is on Ovington Avenue, between Fifth and Sixth avenues,” she said.
Councilman Vincent Gentile and a constituent aide toured 18 identified sites with their owner and developer, Moussa Kahalil, Seminara said. There may be at least 26 properties owned by Kahalil, either under his name or other names and companies.
The councilman and his aide found Kahalil to be “cooperative,” Seminara said after the board meeting. “The board will monitor the situation.”
“We are not letting up on this. We are going to keep pressuring the owner,” said Councilman Gentile yesterday, the day after the Board 10 meeting, determined to pursue this growing quality-of-life issue in Bay Ridge. “If you own it [the property], you maintain it.”
Community Board 10’s list of the 18 properties, provided by District Manager Josephine Beckman, describe their conditions based on Councilman Gentile’s inspection.
The three on Ovington Avenue are described as such:
“562 Ovington Ave.: One family house. The house is all boarded up and no one is living in it. It has a caution tape over the stairway. There is only one board on the house. The backyard is a jungle.
“556 Ovington Ave.: There was a fire in the house. It is a one family house and only the second floor is boarded up. The weeds are overgrown.
552 Ovington Avenue: One family house. Unoccupied. It is all boarded up. There is graffiti on the building. There used to be a fence up.”
Other abandoned and vacant buildings are at: 6815 Ridge Blvd. (looks abandoned), 7701 Ridge Blvd. (needs a lot of work), 7201 Shore Road (has graffiti and weeds, windows not in), 352 94th St. (good condition), and 152 68th St. (may have just been bought and may be empty), and 158 92nd St. (for sale and in good condition, according to the notes).
Houses up for sale are at 169 86th St., 158 92nd St., and 166 82nd St. An occupied house at 327 Bay Ridge Parkway “is falling apart.”
Occupied houses in good condition are on 93rd Street, Senator Street, 77th Street and Bay Ridge Parkway. Two other houses are “just brought” property, and one is partially built at 225 77th St.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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