Police and demolition crews were on the scene blocking access to pedestrian traffic at a structure failure during demolition. An aging eyesore, a shell of what was a former mixed residential/business building in “back in the day” Hell’s Kitchen, has collapsed on the “Stiles Tent.”
It was a call made to the police and fire about a gas smell emanating from the structure that prompted authorities to make a site survey. The survey found the building structurally unsound and crews were dispatched to begin the process of shoring it up. The original intention was, according to local sources, to keep the first floor. It is believed that the owner of the building, who has left it to decay following a city notice it was uninhabitable, negotiated and tried to preserve the first floor to avoid a complete structural change. Today, in the process of that careful demolition, the structure failed and came down upon the neighboring business, Stiles.
Stiles is a farm to market retailer that operates out a tent structure next door. Their overhead costs are wrapped up in rent/land cost and tent repairs. The neighborhood loves this place and is popular with both local residents and restaurant business employees buying supplies. Stiles has been in the location forever. Their business exists in a tent because it’s grandfathered in. Will the city re-examine the business now that its “structure” will require a “rebuild”? Who knows.