Owner of Little Italy Building Where Wall Collapsed Now Fighting to Avoid Demolition
The building at the corner of Grand Street and Mulberry Street in Little Italy once housed Alleva Dairy, had a chimney and part of brick wall collapse on Jan. 10. The DOB initially said the entired structure had to be demolished. Now the landlord says he wants to save the structure and the DOB has given its approval.
| 22 Jan 2024 | 06:23
The owners of a store where a second story wall collapsed are now fighting to save the building from demolition. The Department of Buildings had initially said the building would have to be demolished. Photo: Department of Buildings
An cross walk can seen through the hold created when a wall collapsed at 188 Grand Street. Photo: DOB
For 130 years, until last March, the store on the corner Grand Street and Mulberry had housed the Alleva Dairy, billed as the oldest cheese story in the US. The owners left with the hope of reopening the story in New Jersey. Photo: Alleva Dairy.
A partial vacate order had been issued for Piemonte Ravioli Co at 190 Grand St. next door to the building where a wall and chimney collapsed on Jan. 10, but was open for business a few days later. Photo: Yelp
The owner of a story at the corner of Grand Street and Mulberry Street in Little Italy is fighting a Department of Building order that said the structure had to be demolished after a brick wall collapsed on Jan. 10.
The owner is now trying to shore up the structure to save it, and the DOB is so far allowing him to proceed with his plan to save the building.
Denizens of Little Italy had worried that if the building that for 130 years housed Alleva Dairy, billed as the oldest cheese store in the United States, was demolised, it would be replaced with luxury condos and be another blow to historic Little Italy.
The longtime owner is now pursuing a stabilization and partial demolition plan instead of a full blown demolition at 188 Grand St.
An adjoining building at 190 Grand Street which housed Piemonte Ravioli since 1920 had a partial vacate order issued after the Jan. 10 collapse but has since reopened.
Scaffolding surrounds the building at 188 Grand St. “On Wednesday, Jan. 17th, the owners of 188 Grand Street submitted plans to DOB for the stabilization and partial demolition of the building, as an alternative to the full demolition of the building,” a spokesman for the DOB told Our Town Downtown.
And the DOB had given it a thumbs up.
“The methods and the order of operations for the proposed stabilization plans they submitted accounted for the safety of the workers who would be performing this work. This plan was reviewed and approved by DOB,” said the spokesman.
“After the plans were approved, the owners informed us on Thursday, January 18th, that they were going to pursue the stabilization and partial demolition plan,” the DOB said.
The building owner is listed as Stabler Realty, a successor to the Stabler Brothers who are longtime building owners in the Little Italy neighborhood.
Their agent is listed at Jared Minc at Building Equity Management LLC. When we called for comment on Jan. 22, Minc said, “I’m sorry, I’m really not at liberty to comment.