The long-standing scaffolding wraps around the corner from 45 John Street onto Dutch St., a dark and narrow passage that creates a shadowy haven for indigent addicts, neighbors say.
BY COLIN MIXSON
Financial District residents living in the shadow of a long abandoned John St. building, which is enveloped by Lower Manhattan’s longest-standing and most reviled sidewalk shed, were elated to discover that the neglected property is back on the market.
Signage posted last week on the façade of 45 John St. advertised retail space available to lease, and neighbors are optimistic that new tenants will come and drive off the drug addicts and vagrants that have roosted for nearly a decade beneath the edifice’s hated scaffolding.
“I think people are more optimistic now than ever and as hopeful as ever that it gets done as soon as possible,” said John St. resident Patrick Kennell.
The property at 45 John St. has a long and troubled history going back to the financial crisis in 2008, when then-owner 45 John St. LLC failed to keep up its mortgage payments, and its German lender, Bayerische Landesbank, moved to foreclose in 2009, according to court documents.
Before that, however, the developer had been in the process of renovating the property and erected a sidewalk shed in 2007, which has marred the block and vexed neighbors ever since, despite virtually no work occurring to justify its existence for nearly a decade.
Rather that sheltering passerby from construction debris as a developer built the planned high-end condos, the sidewalk shed ended up instead providing less luxurious accommodations for vagrants and drug addicts, according to long-suffering neighbors.
One woman told Downtown Express she was horrified at one point to see cardboard signs erected by the shed’s indigent squatters advertising lewd and disgusting acts in exchange for cash.
“They’re putting out signs that read, ‘Want to see two bums f—? $20,’ and ‘Want to see a bum eat s—? $20,’” said Andrea Kanter. who lives on John St. with her husband and two children, aged 4 and 6. “I’m a businesswoman. I’m all for entrepreneurial behavior, but let’s do it in good taste.”
Following the financial crash and foreclosure, 45 John St. languished as the owner tied the building up in court with a series of failed appeals that dragged on for five years, while renovation work had ground to a halt. Despite that, the Dept. of Buildings continued to rubber-stamp annual renewals for the scaffolding permits, turning the shed into a semipermanent fixture of the neighborhood.
The parties finally agreed to settle in 2014, and late last year a new developer operating under a shell company called 45 John NY LLC bought the property at auction for $73 million.
With a new owner firmly in control of the property, and the signage advertising rentals, locals hope that more progress is on the horizon, including completion of the renovations leading to the property’s residential units hitting the market — and the scaffolding finally coming down.
“I would infer that we’re going to see activity in the residential space above, and I would suspect we’re going to see that turning into rental apartments pretty soon,” said Kennell.
Repeated calls to real estate agency Keller Williams, which is handling the retail leasing at 45 John St., were not returned.
