New Owners Start Work at 56 Cambridge Place
Looks like work is getting underway at 56 Cambridge Place–which The Post reported yesterday had been sold for $1.05 million. This is $230,000 more than the sellers paid for it at auction just a year ago. Not too shabby! There was some debate at the time about whether it was salvageable or would have to…
Looks like work is getting underway at 56 Cambridge Place–which The Post reported yesterday had been sold for $1.05 million. This is $230,000 more than the sellers paid for it at auction just a year ago. Not too shabby! There was some debate at the time about whether it was salvageable or would have to be a tear down. Looks like the new owners are going to try to resurrect this crumbling beauty. Wonder whether this will be a single family now–rumor had been that the sellers had planned to condo it. By the way, if you’re tiring of the Clinton Hill focus, please send us pictures of these kind of scenes from your nabe and we’ll happily post ’em. Thanks.
56 Cambridge [Property Shark] GMAP
Recently Sold in Brooklyn [Brownstoner]
Scaffolding Rising on Cambridge [Brownstoner]
Fate of Cambridge Place Wreck [Brownstoner]
Great news that this house is being restored
Shahn, I think everyone is happy it is being restored. Are you doing it?
Shahn…do you own the building now? Are you a developer/investor in the building? I’m glad to hear that the house is being tended to with care…
While it is true that certain parts of the floor are collapsing, the core of the building itself is really not in that bad of shape. In particular the exterior walls are in good shape. There are a few wood beams in the basement that have rotted away significantly, and that is obvious in the floor above them. Where that has happened we have shored the rotting beams with new wood.
Part of demolishing the rotten interior walls is shoring up any load bearing beams that are rotten. When the renovation plans are approved by Landmarks and the Department of Buildings, this temporary wood shoring will be replaced by steel I-beams running down into the foundation. Since there is a significant amount of water damage, a lot of the flooring will have to be torn out and new floor joists put in that tie into the new steel. While this structural reinforcement with steel may be a little bit of overkill, we feel it is the best thing to guarantee the building does not collapse.
I reiterate my “diamond in the rough” statement, because what you saw when the building was rotting and filled with debris is different than what it looks like with the basement cleaned out, a lot of debris removed, and some temporary reinforcement in place in any questionable areas.
What happens if while demolishing what is rotten and unstable the house collapses?
Shahn, I was in this house with an engineer. His report was that this house is totally collapsing. This is hardly a case of a diamond in the rough. I felt so sad when I was there because you could see how beautiful it used to be. Not to mention the wonderful floorplan. But this house has been eating itself up for too long. Best of luck to whoever is renovating this house.
The real story about the person who purchased the building at auction is a variation of what you heard. They purchased the building hoping that they would be able to convince Landmarks Preservation that the building was so dilapidated that it could not be salvaged and would have to be torn down. After a few months of negotiating, the owners paid for the scaffolding to be put up as part of their plan to convince Landmarks that the building had become dangerous and was about to fall down.
Eventually, they realized that Landmarks was not falling for their ruse sold the building.
Landmarks has already been contacted about a pending renovation of the building and has given a permit to clear debris and demolish all that is rotten or unstable on the inside while the plan for the exterior goes through the approval process.
Apparently I need to clarify myself for (in my best Mr. Smith voice) Mr. Andersen. Being a neighbor on the block to the house in question, I am hugely in favor of its renovation! My *fear*, in fact, has been that it would be impossible to salvage, and that, thus, some developer would be able to get permission to tear it down and build condos.
Regarding my comment that renovating such a house I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, ok, I was exaggerating a bit. My good friend B’stoner has undertaken nearly as huge a task as such on his own home, my mother has done it, hell, I’d do it if I had the time and the money and the inclination and the patience and the, well, you get the picture. I have none of the above in spades. I’m just saying its going to be gigantic, and a gigantic pain in the arse.
And again, to whatever brave soul is undertaking this task (and I might remind us all at this point, that we still don’t know who the owner is or what their intentions are) – if renovation is indeed what they are doing – more power to ya!
I look forward to having a drink on your front porch when it is done.
I remember going to the open house for those condos on St. James place, they were ok, but the broker from developers group was an absolute moron!!! They didn’t seem to know anything about the neighborhood or how to follow through with a transaction. Still looking for some decent condos in the area if anyone has an idea, just make sure its not through the developers group.