Checking In at 37 Bridge Street

What a load of crap.

I used to live in that building and had a long battle with the owner- of- the time, ‘Ol’ Whatzisname’. I saw Scarano’s plans and he had a complete, (fraudulently obtained) permit set which included adaptive reuse of the tanks.

Herb Chaves, who owned the building up to 2006, asked me shortly after I took tenancy how much it would cost to remove the tanks so as to turn the space into useable floor area – about 18,000 square feet. I went through the entire interior and calculated it would cost $4 million dollars to remove the tanks alone. This was in 1998. Removing the tanks would have required emptying the building to allow for asbestos abatement (I bet that was never done) and opening the walls to allow crews to work inside, torch- cutting the tanks into pieces small enough to remove by hand.

That building was loaded with asbestos and cutting the tanks with acetylene torches would have released carcinogens into the (neighbors) atmosphere. The tanks would have to have been sand- blasted and the entire tank area abated prior to removal.

The tanks were one reason why none of the usual real estate crooks and sleazebags were interested in the building, such as Josh Gutman. Gutman knew all about that building- the current Kirkman complex was once owned by Chaves, who lost most of it to taxes. Gutman picked up the scraps; the heat for all the Kirkman buildings was fired from a central steam boiler in 53 Bridge.

Chances are, the current developer will go belly up; if the construction costs don’t do him in, the next leg of deflation undoubtedly will.

Debt- driven deflation just beginning – think ‘Great Depression’ with an attitude – and an onrunning energy crisis, New York real estate will likely fall about 95% from its peak.

Goodbye, suckers!

I give these guys a lot of credit for putting the film together and doing it so well – whether you like the building or not, you feel the creativity and passion that is going into it. I wonder when video will become a more thoughtful part of the selling process. When you think about it, it’s amazing that advertisers spend a million dollars selling a two dollar bar of soap but spend peanuts to sell twelve hundred square feet for a million five….