Jackhammers jangle nerves on B'Way

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When Serin Philip is asked to describe the street in front of his real estate storefront Rapid Realty, he can only come up with one word: “warzone.”

“It’s like an earthquake,” he said. “The ground is shaking.”

The racket of jackhammers through the clouds of dust swirling around the corner of West 242 Street and Broadway are all the result of the construction of a six-story, mixed-use building developed by the Stagg Group. The space was previously a parking lot, and is a half-mile from another Stagg project, 5731 Broadway, which was announced as temporary housing for homeless families earlier this month.

The ground level of the 5959 Broadway building will be dedicated to retail space and storefronts, said Jay Martino, senior vice president of construction for Stagg. There also will be some parking available on the street level, with additional spaces underground. 

While Martino does not know exactly what companies will move into the building, he suggests that it can be “anything from a doctor’s office to a pizza shop.”

The second story will be space dedicated for either a charter school or medical clinic. The remaining four floors will house 72 residential apartment units, which Martino said will be offered at market value.

The project broke ground last summer, and is expected to be complete by the end this year. Martino hopes to have people moving into the building as early as January, but couldn’t provide a more detailed timeline of construction.

That construction, however, starts as early as 7 a.m., with crews working all day until 4 in the evening, according to neighboring businesses. Along with the noise and disruption to the neighborhood, a large portion of the sidewalk and street have been closed off for the past few weeks, seriously affecting businesses operating on the strip of Broadway between West 242nd Street and Manhattan College Parkway.

“Everyday, I have people who say they can’t find parking,” Philip said. “They say they will come back but they never do.”

Cars that have tried to swerve around the ongoing work site have even been trapped in large holes in the street. One Thursday morning, a black minivan was stuck for nearly 20 minutes while the construction crew helped dig him out. That minivan, Philip said, is just one of many victims.

The lack of parking has affected Louis Porco, owner of Broadway Joe’s Pizza, as well. It’s a hassle for customers to visit, Porco said, and what’s left of the limited parking spaces are snatched by taxi drivers. 

Porco feels the construction is just a preview of what might happen if the city transportation department gets its way and restripes his section of Broadway to allow for a protected bicycle lane and narrowing unusually wide parking spaces..

“Making it smaller will make it much worse,” he said.

Ammar Almmar, who works at Riverdale Deli Grocery, said construction is certainly disruptive. But his biggest issues come when MTA closes the West 242nd Street train station, like they did last weekend. He called the construction work at 5959 Broadway “noisy and disruptive, but also necessary.”

No one from Stagg has talked to Philip, Porco, and Almmar, and they haven’t received any updates from the developer. Martino said Stagg worked with Community Board 8 before construction got underway. 

The building is not the first Riverdale project from Stagg. Besides the controversial 5731 Broadway, the developer also built The Park at 6155 Broadway in 2016, a luxury apartment complex across the street from Van Cortlandt Park.

“It’s a very attractive location,” Martino said of the soon-to-be erected building at 5959 Broadway. “Combined with the park across the street, and the train and bus service for transportation, it has great access to get around the city.”

Philip and many of his business peers are trying to keep that in mind while they suffer through the construction, mostly because of the positive impact he believes the new building will have on the community. 

“You had an empty lot producing nothing for the community, and now you’ll have stores and residences adding value to the neighborhood,” Philip said. “At the end, it’s going to be beneficial. So right now I’m just going to take the sacrifice.”

Broadway, Rapid Realty, Broadway Joes, Stagg Group, Alexandra Hutzler

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