Wall collapse closes six Jamaica businesses

Labor Day weekend usually marks the unofficial end of summer, but this year, it nearly marked the end of the road for some businesses on Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica.
Excavation at a building site at 89-36 Sutphin Boulevard undermined the north wall of the building housing a mattress store next door, and sometime on Thursday, August 30, the wall collapsed, bringing the store’s ceiling crashing down and reportedly injuring one construction worker at the excavation site. The injury was not considered life threatening, according to reports.
The Department of Buildings (DOB) issued a “stop work order” on Friday, August 31, after finding seven Building Code violations relating to the unsafe condition, including ordering neighboring homeowners on 146th Street to evacuate their garages. After a preliminary investigation, DOB declared the entire adjacent building, housing stores at 90-02 through 90-10A Sutphin Boulevard to be unsafe, and ordered it evacuated.
“I don’t know what to do,” said Harsha Mehda, as she stared at cabinets full of records in her dental office. “They called me at 11 a.m. and said ‘you cannot be here.’”
Mehda, who was not in her office at the time of the collapse, nevertheless looked like someone in shock. “I’m on the verge of tears,” she said, adding “I’ve been here 25 years, and so have some of my patients.”
Mehda’s attorney, Gil J. Winokur, peered in to her closed office and said, “This is a terrible tragedy for my client and her neighbors, compounded by the fact that it’s Friday on Labor Day weekend, and they have to be gone by Tuesday morning.”
Julio Pomarico, owner of the pawnshop, Canal Buy and Sell, was in his store when the collapse came. “Difficult things happen,” he said, contemplating the need to find another home for his business.
In March, 2006, a five-alarm blaze tore through the building which had occupied the construction site. Pomarco’s shop escaped the fire, but had significant smoke and water damage. “We lost a lot of business from that month,” he said, glancing at the wreckage of the neighboring furniture store, “Now we have this.”
Nick Anagnostopoulos, the owner of the ill-fated building, surveyed the damage with workers from DOB and the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. “I’ve had this property for almost 30 years, from when I lived in Woodside,” he said. “I just hope I have enough insurance.”
A DOB person at the site, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “It looks like they (the construction company) did it right - they had the proper permits for the under-pinning - but the Department will no doubt have forensic engineers over here to determine what happened.”
City Councilmember James F. Gennaro, whose district extends to the scene, echoed the anonymous remarks. “They’ve got all their permits, so it looks like they were doing the right thing,” he said.
By Tuesday, September 4, DOB had determined that although the part of the building housing the furniture store would have to be demolished, only Mehda’s dental practice, which was the next store in the line, would suffer a loss of space, according to their spokesperson.
The other businesses, including a hair salon, pawnshop and eyeglass store could continue to operate as before, once the gas and electricity, which had been shut off in the aftermath of the Thursday collapse, had been restored, the DOB spokesperson said.
Gennaro indicated he would get the displaced businesses together with the city’s Department of Small Business Services and the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation for a meeting at noon on Wednesday, September 5. “They do a great job with the local business community,” he said.