As reported a couple of weeks ago, residents living next to Extell Development’s construction site at 229 Cherry St. aren’t getting much sleep lately.
Six days a week, the pile driving operation in preparation for a 72-story luxury tower makes life pretty miserable in the immediate vicinity. At a recent community meeting, Extell and executives with Lend Lease, its general contractor, said the piercingly loud work would continue through most of this year. In spite of pleas from neighbors, they declined to reduce the work hours. At the meeting, Community Board 3’s Susan Stetzer said other developers have made accommodations for residents, at least on weekends.
But now some relief is on the way. After inquiries to the Department of Buildings from tenants, the community board and elected officials, noisy work on Saturdays will now begin at 10:30 a.m., rather than 9 a.m. Also the Department of Transportation and Con Ed will delay loud construction work for infrastructure projects in the area until 10:30. Loud work will not take place on Sundays.
The tenant association at Two Bridges Tower, located alongside the Extell site, first raised concerns about the early morning noise.
And what will all this pile driving, vibration and heavy construction do to the stability of nearby buildings? If these buildings were to sustain serious damage, and residents had to leave, would there be any consequence at all to Excell? Or would it be the same shameful result as when the building of the Wyndham Chinatown wrecked its Hester Street neighbor building and made people homeless ? That owner/developer lost nothing and now has a very successful hotel