Eccentric millionaire Lisa Fiekowsky -- recognized for gathering cans and bottles and her clunker automotive -- is negotiating with the town to save lots of her landmarked Harlem property from demolition.
Gabriella Bass
An eccentric millionaire property proprietor — recognized for gathering cans and bottles in her Brooklyn neighborhood — is now negotiating with the town to save lots of one of many landmarked Manhattan properties she owns.
Lisa Fiekowsky, 71, advised The Put up that she is in talks with the town to save lots of the 125-year-old Renaissance Revival-style brick and limestone constructing she owns at 451 Convent Ave. The Put up reported on Aug. 21 that the property was slated for demolition as a result of Fiekowsky had allegedly uncared for it for many years.
“I’m actively working with the Division of Buildings to save lots of the constructing,” she mentioned. “There’s lots occurring with engineers and legal professionals, and I'm doing every thing I can to reserve it. I’m unsure my lawyer will let me say something extra.”
The four-story constructing, which is padlocked and has a big gap within the roof, had fallen into such disrepair that the town deemed it a hazard to the general public and the Division of Buildings had made the choice to demolish it final month.
Nestled on a pristine block in Harlem’s Sugar Hill Historic District, the construction has racked up 1000's of dollars in fines and violations in addition to a metropolis lawsuit over a nine-year interval. Fiekowsky, who lives in a $1 million co-op subsequent to Prospect Park together with her husband, purchased the Harlem property in 1999, however did not handle it, in keeping with public information.
Now she has surrounded herself with a small staff of structural engineers and different specialists to attempt to save the property, and the DOB is giving her every week to place collectively an emergency plan.
“If the proprietor’s engineering agency supplies the requested further data and coordinates the proposed work with the LPC [Landmarks Preservation Commission], and the proprietor follows by means of with stabilization of the constructing pursuant to plans acceptable to the Division, we are able to prolong the emergency demolition whereas the proprietor mitigates the hazards and makes repairs,” a DOB spokesman advised The Put up Thursday.
Fiekowsky, who has an MBA from the College of Chicago, owns two different close by Harlem properties and has earned the ire of native residents who advised The Put up they don’t perceive why she fails to take care of them.
“It’s a blight on an in any other case stunning neighborhood,” mentioned William Geddes, a industrial photographer and the president of the Hamilton Terrace Block Affiliation, named for the road the place the properties are situated.
Geddes advised The Put up that he has lived on the leafy Harlem block that leads into the Hamilton Grange Nationwide Memorial the place Founding Father Alexander Hamilton as soon as lived, for the final 15 years. He mentioned that in that point, he has by no means seen tenants or any maintenance at 47 and 60 Hamilton Terrace, that are each owned by Fiekowsky, who additionally goes by her married title, Silversmith.
Fiekowsky has repeatedly paid the taxes on each the Convent Avenue property and 60 Hamilton Terrace, which she bought for $1.5 million in 2005, in keeping with public information. However she owes greater than $62,000 in property taxes on 47 Hamilton Terrace, information present.
“We've got been attempting to succeed in her to do one thing in regards to the properties,” Geddes mentioned, including that neighbors have referred to as police and the DOB up to now a number of years to report rat infestations and harm, however nothing has helped, he mentioned.. “It attracts vagrancy, rubbish and rats. It’s not a great scene however there’s not lots we are able to do about it.”
One other neighbor, who didn't need to be recognized, mentioned that Hamilton Terrace is a close-knit neighborhood the place “now we have each other’s keys and we operate like our personal doormen.”
“I’ve been right here for 20 years, and I've by no means seen anybody coming in or out of these homes,” the neighbor mentioned, referring to 47 and 60 Hamilton Terrace. “It’s actually too dangerous.”
When requested if she had seen the proprietor, the neighbor shrugged and mentioned she had learn tales in The Put up about how she roams the town in a beat-up automotive gathering cans and bottles.
“I actually don’t get it,” the neighbor mentioned.
In 2018, The Put up wrote about how Fiekowsky’s junk-filled Toyota Camry had been an eyesore in her Prospect Heights neighborhood for years.
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