Demolition is (well) underway for 59 Franklin, the six-story brick building just east of the corner with Broadway, AND 358 Broadway, the five-story building just south of the corner. The two sites surround the empty lot at 65 Franklin, the failed construction site that has been idle for years and as far as I can tell, no longer has an active permit.

There have been plans since 2016 to demolish the two to make way for a new 18-story residential building, but there is now a lawsuit where the developer of 59 is suing the developer of 65, claiming that their site damaged its neighbors.

When I went by in mid July, the contractor said he was gutting the interiors of both buildings, floor by floor. Once the floors were gone in the interior, the facades of both buildings will come down. Neighbors say that looks like it’s any day now.

If you have been following the saga here, there have plans filed with the city since 2015, calling for an 18-story building at 59 Franklin; those drawings show that portions of 358 Broadway will remain, with a first floor commercial space behind that an a rear yard behind that. But there’s ALSO now a listing for the site (thanks to J. for sending), delivered vacant. The site has 85 feet of frontage on Franklin, and zoning allows for 66,000 square feet, but the current owner transferred air rights from the 358 site, so that the new building can be 89,000 square feet.

The residents at 356 Broadway must have real concerns here — once 358 comes down, hopefully someone is looking out for their lot line wall.

So to the suit, The Real Deal has the story: “Charles Dayan’s Bonjour Capital controls 59 Franklin Street through an LLC, which last week sued Hap Investments and Noble Construction Group, claiming negligent work at 65 Franklin Street — aka 360 Broadway — destabilized the building. He is seeking at least $15 million.”

The last I emailed with the Department of Buildings about 65 Franklin in February, they said the site had been under a Stop Work Order for a couple of years now, but at that time it still had an active work permit for a new 19-story building at the site. However, the new building work permit was active only until late March. If they corrected the violating conditions, they could ask to have the Stop Work Order lifted. From what I can tell on the DOB site, they never applied for a renewal of the permit. The picture above shows the sidewalk just sitting there, closed off to the rest of us while that site is idle.

The whole thing is a disaster. And for posterity, here’s what that corner looked like in 2018: