The lights are?or should be?turning on again by tomorrow in Zone A, but the flooded buildings of lower Manhattan have additional damage to contend with before residents can return home. One of the buildings that's been significantly affected is 88 Greenwich, the Greenwich Club Residences condo conversion. The building is big?452 units?and, for the moment, completely uninhabitable. Tipsters have passed along a few memos from management, the most recent of which explains that
"The Department of Buildings has deemed 88 Greenwich 'Unsafe' and has posted signs to this effect on the building?.There is no electricity, no lights, no elevators, no fire safety systems, no heat, no water, no working plumbing, and no functioning toilets. Based on current conditions, it does not appear that the building will be habitable in the short term, meaning a few weeks to more than a month." An earlier memo, also shared by a tipster, included some more specific information about the damage to the building: "as much as 20 ft. of salt water" flooded into parts of the basement, and "mechanical rooms are completely submerged?.Additionally, during the massive flow of salt water into the building, a fuel oil storage tank filled with salt water, causing a mixture of oil and salt water to flow throughout the lower levels of the building. This has made for unsafe conditions." The first step in the cleanup was pumping out the basement, which that initial memo estimated would take at least two days, but the full cleanup will clearly take much longer. The memo advised owners to file claims with homeowner's or renter's insurance for any belongings kept in the storage room, which was submerged in that mixture of oil and salt water.
We've reached out to building management and will update when we learn more.
UPDATE: Building manager Cooper Square Realty tells us: "It is Cooper Square Realty's policy to refrain from commenting specifically on any of our managed properties. We can, however, tell you that more than 140 buildings in the Cooper Square Realty portfolio have been impacted by Hurricane Sandy in varying degrees of severity. At least 40 of our properties have sustained extensive damage to the building's operational systems."
· Curbed's Up-to-the-Second Guide to Zone A Building Rebirth [Curbed]
· 88 Greenwich coverage [Curbed]
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