It takes a long-ish memory to recall what, if anything, once stood near Molly Moon’s at 1624 N. 45th. In fact, it was Kitaro Bento Sushi (or is it Kitaro Sushi Bento?) that burned there almost eight and a half years ago as we wrote about here. While we have had periodic updates on the charred remains (Kitaro News Flash: It’s Still a Burned Out Shell), there has been little in the way of action at that property.
But perhaps I’m not the best one to recount such ancient history. When a reader recently wrote to us to say that workmen appeared to be clearing the lot and did we know what was planned, I replied that I had no idea. But in fact, I had an excellent idea if I could only have recalled it. The property is destined to become a 4-story, 12 unit apartment building, as I myself wrote about in December of 2018 . To quote myself, “Amenities will include a rooftop deck, covered bicycle parking and a green space in the back. No parking is required for residents or for businesses that may move in to the ground floor, and none will be constructed.”
It’s not uncommon in this city for property to change hands, plans to be laid, and then to all outward appearances, to have nothing happen for years. But behind the scenes, the city and contractors may be engaged in an intense bureaucratic hurdling match. I checked the records to see if such was going on, and indeed, there has been quite a bit of administrative activity. I see design review documents, public comments, permit applications, community outreach plans, and a rat abatement plan among other items.
But to what do we owe the recent spate of activity on site? Perhaps this Emergency Order, issued January 23 of this year, explains it. The order states that a complaint was received about the property (just one???), and that the owner needs to secure the property against unauthorized entry. The order goes into quite a bit of detail explaining how the property is to be secured; the city has obviously dealt with shirkers before. A deadline of January 28 was given, and I don’t know if the owners made that. But, as the photos show, there will be no entry, authorized or otherwise, now. A similar order was issued back in 2013. Not sure how or if the owners complied at that time.
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I’m interested in reader comments.
“Unauthorized entry.”
The city has a policy that you can not tear down a burned out hazardous building, or any other building, until you have a permit for a new building. How stupid is that? The average time for a permit that goes though design review is about 2 years.
I for one am excited about another nondescript apartment building.
That’s how we lower the rent, tho
True. I’ve given up hope for a Frank Lloyd Wright to come to our rescue on this sort of stuff. Modern developer-driven design is what it is, I’m afraid, with few notable exceptions. But build we must because the rent is too damn high!
I don’t think Frank Lloyd Wright or Gaudi designed the Mari-Don, but nonetheless, the neighborhood survived, things were fine 🙂
Point taken. Wright did design affordable housing. He just never built it LOL Going way over budget every time. Perhaps a better wishlist would be the Berlin architects who created affordable, working class housing with exciting and even groundbreaking design in Weimar Germany. Someone like Bruno Taut would be wonderful, paired with city-funded social housing.
We are Borg. Our architects have assimilated your design. Resistance is futile.
there is no sensible reason why this mess just sat there for over 8 years…
It was not for lack of effort. Some people raised awareness about the wrecked hulk repeatedly on these pages. I don’t know if they also shared comments with the city, but my hope is their work drove this happy resolution!
I think part of the problem has been overly ambitious plans for its replacement. Very small, narrow lot to build on, so they have to build from lot line to lot line, and they have to do it from the inside out since they can’t work from adjacent lots. If there had been some way to build something in scale with its surroundings, could have been finished long ago. This is just me talking out of my hat, so to speak, not high quality information.
Are you saying that something built to scale would not pencil out?
Don’t know. Assuming the lot didn’t change hands and the owner doesn’t have land acquisition cost to pay off, and we ignore the decade of property tax and whatever other insurance etc. costs while the lot has been idle, under those simplifying assumptions, I’d be surprised if they couldn’t build to the scale of its surroundings and make money. But I suppose that isn’t exactly the right question. Would they make as much money, as if they went up 4 stories, even if that’s kind of a moon shot that’s going to take extra years to pull off? Probably not. Your guess is as good as mine (actually probably a good deal better.)
You give me too much credit. There are so many unknown leins that may/may not attend to that property it is hard to know what the financial picture is even before they start to build. Given that I assume the vacant lot would be taxed at a “highest and best use” rate, they should probably build it to best possible use…multi-story.
Who makes your hat? 🙂