Portion of Liberty Warehouse Roof Collapses
(WTVD)
I haven't seen it myself yet, but WTVD has pictures showing the collapse of a significant portion of the Liberty Warehouse roof afer yesterday's heavy rains. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but businesses were flooded, and of course it is a terrible thing to happen to Durham's last tobacco auction warehouse - for which Greenfire sought and received local landmark designation last year. Per a Herald-Sun article ~2 weeks ago, the roof was known to be in bad shape, with persistent leakage, and the supports insufficient - the structure had received a "Condemned" sign courtesy of NIS and a meeting was to have occurred on May 4th between Greenfire and the city to resolve what was to be done to repair the roof.
Posts
21 comments:
word is that the city is planning to pay for the repair itself and put a lien on the building against greenfire. that was for the hole that opened over liberty arts, not the current one, but i wouldnt be surprised if the same thing happened for this hole.
-gonzo
Methinks Greenfire obviously has some serious cash-flow problems if they can't fix a basic roof issue before this kind of thing happens. And the City has been after them to do this sort of maintenance? Hmmm.
This building houses the Scrap Exchange, Liberty Arts, Ujamaa skateboard shop, Central Market and other offices and artists. It is not only a historic landmark, but a mecca of funky Durham. This building needs attention and the tenants will need immediate support and temporary relocation. Durham, this is a call to support your own! Give us Liberty!
@ gonzo- that is the tool they are currently using against Fireball White/Mia Hunter at 520 Holloway
The sad thing is that all the structural flaws were easily seen...Support beams were rotten to the point where they looked like they had exploded months before the roof fell... One section supporting a 40 foot span was held in place by the PVC downspout fastened to it... after the collapse, pieces of the pipe littered the street... We repeatedly warned them of the danger but Greenfire did not care... As one of the artists that uses a space at Liberty Arts to demo for children weekly, I am devestated..
Shouldn't that tax breaks received as part of the "Landmark" distinction be cancelled and paid to the city w/penalty? You would think that as a landmark receiving tax breaks that there is an implied responsibility to maintain the structure.
Hopefully the city review this and doesn't provide incentives to folks that aren't willing to abide their responsibilities.
From today's Herald-sun:
"We're not going to build something (in the Liberty Warehouse) that we can't have any tenants for at this point, but we're going to do a market analysis and a feasibility study and understand what the opportunities are, and that will drive the plans for what we do in the space," Webb said.
I'm not a developer and the only property I own is my house, but wouldn't you want to do a market analysis and a feasibility study BEFORE you buy an enormous building, rather than 5 years later after the roof falls in?
wouldn't you want to do a market analysis and a feasibility study BEFORE you buy an enormous building, rather than 5 years later after the roof falls in?
To be fair on that point, as a developer, I will say that people's plans of five years ago aren't much worth the hard drive space they occupy. Durham has been fortunate that there has still been incremental re-development in the last 3 years, but it is a very, very tough market.
GK
....and now the city has condemned the whole thing. guh.
...and padlocked the doors.
@Natalie-
It was Greenfire that changed the locks. See this story for more:
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/13313716/article-Local-businesses-locked-out?instance=main_article
Apparently, Greenfire is taking a salt the earth approach to dealing with the city. I guess they're pissed off about being functionally bankrupt.
I've never understood Greenfire's approach to development. They acquired properties to the point that they had no money to do any renovations. What's the point of owning 1 million square feet of real estate if you only have the money to rehab 5% of it?
That's a point I've raised a few times even to the Council. You can't stop a private company from buying private property.. But the notion that Greenfire as done so much good seems misplaced. Sure, there are some good things. But the scale of idle properties has actually slowed development in downtown. There is too much concentration in one entity. And the result, as we are seeing, is that when that one entity is struggling, nothing happens. Worse, things get neglected and fall apart. What's next? How are those historic buildings on Parish Street doing?
I think anything the city does at this point has to be tied to a dismantling some of these other holdings. Maybe, the ones by the old Ballpark would finally be made available to MLB. Imagine if that had been done years ago... Force the fire sale to finance the repairs on the Liberty "Historic Landmark" Warehouse.
@ Rob
I wasn't clear enough that *they* in this case is Greenfire. I was singing Rent in my head...
This mass property holding that enables private property owners to suck the life out of neighborhoods through their "investment" isn't unique to Greenfire but seems a Durham wide problem.
Bill Fields
Sturdivant Estate
Haskell Properties/Fireball White
Bill Graham
Lee Ray Bergman
Rick Soles
Brace yourselves for the demolition permit application.
While there typically is a one-year wait, the statutes provide for immediate demolition of historic buildings under certain circumstances.
I am sure this has been forgotten, but Greenfire owns the former Rogers Drug building. Preservation Durham leased space there in 2008 and that building had major roof issues, also. There were buckets and blue tarps in the office for months. Finally, the staff was forced to work out of their homes due to wet work areas and the smell of mold. After repeated please from the Executive Director and President of the Board to get the roof fixed properly, the non-profit finally felt it had to move as it could no longer function properly. The PD office is no longer downtown because of this.
Would it be rude to suggest that greenfire is simply playing to get the building gone? The land is obviously much more valuable without the building on it and the freedom to build something newer and bigger.
steps:
1. Let building rot
2. Get condemned when dangerous
3. shrug and say there's no choice but to tear it down. If you're good at the game you get the city to do this for you so you can put the blame on them.
4. Pay fines
5....
6. Profit?
From today's N&O:
As for Liberty Warehouse, which was built in the 1930s and 1940s, Greenfire disputes the idea that the roof collapsed because of neglect.
"We were taking care of the building," Lemanski said. "You don't plan on an unprecedented storm surge."
When it bought the old tobacco auction house in 2006, Greenfire said that any redevelopment of the property was likely years away.
The company still doesn't see enough demand to warrant a major redevelopment, which means Greenfire will focus on repairing the structure to the point where some tenants can return.
"We wouldn't let it be knocked down," Lemanski said.
"Everything is about historic preservation," Webb said.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/05/19/1207932/roof-falls-yet-greenfire-stands.html#ixzz1Mo3uXSTU
--------------------------
I sure hope the city holds Greenfire to that pledge. Also, Greenfire claims that they'll be starting work on the SunTrust building by July 31 (the also told the new biz reporter from the HS the same thing two weeks ago). If you look out the window to your left, you can see pigs in flight.
"unprecedented storm surge!?!" Ha.
I was downtown, it was a thunderstorm with some brief hail. that is a regular occurence in these parts.
Greenfire needs to take care of the building or sell it to someone who will.
They better help the Liberty tenants with getting back to working conditions, either there, or in new locales.
Yes, the rent was cheap, but not so cheap that tenants didn't deserve a solid roof that would keep out the elements.
It would be nice to see the city step up and play hardball with Greenfire.
The unfortunate truth is that Liberty will be financially impossible to adaptively re-use. Structurally it is a house of cards, parking (say, underneath), would require major fire barrier retrofit, which would be all but impossible. All very expensive and not the highest value for any developer who knows his way around an excel spreadsheet. In the short term, we'll never see it get more than bandaids. The harsh reality is that, long term, we are certain to lose the last tobacco auction hous, and a substantial new development will take its place.
@Anon
I'm always amazed at people who come on this site and, urbi et orbi, announce that this or that building "can't be saved," or "costs too much to save," or is "too far gone." Here's a nice example:
http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2007/08/501-oakwood.html
Scroll down to the comment from Councilman Mike Woodard who said that Community Development and two affordable housing groups had looked at the house and one of them had said that the house was "too far gone."
Now, of course, you can see from the happy ending that the house was NOT "too far gone."
So, Anon, who are you? And how do you so authoritatively know that the Liberty warehouse is "financially impossible," structurally a "house of cards," blah, blah, blah?
Perhaps you're one of the "Community Development" people that Mike Woodard consulted four years ago?
The city has initiated a demolition-by-neglect investigation on the Liberty Warehouse building.
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/13647466/article-Condition-of-historic-warehouse-investigated?instance=main_article
This is the first time I've ever heard of the city doing this. I'm glad they are, but it's also sad to hear that demolition-by-neglect is a 3 strikes process. How many strikes can a historic landmark have thrown at it before it falls down?
Post a Comment