Anyone who's ever tried to figure out anything about building permits in Brooklyn knows the names of the Brothers Fekete (Jacob and Hershey) because they look they appear on every building that's going up in Williamsburg and other neighborhoods. The Feketes are expediters who push plans through the Buildings Department bureaucracy for architects like Karl Fischer and help get permits issued. It's a good business: there are 2,800 of them, up from just 2,200 two years ago. In any case, the new Village Voice has a profile of the two men, who are the construction industry equivalents of Eli and Peyton Manning, albeit with some personal drama and some legal issues thrown in. Sadly, older brother Jacob may not be expediting more buildings for a while, as he's got some troubles related to a big Bushwick arson a few years ago, but Hershey is still going strong and expediting things.
· Two Brooklyn Brothers are the Kings of Expediters [Village Voice]
· DOB Cracking Down on 'Outlaw Architects,' Etc. [Curbed]
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