As local real estate prices remain some of the strongest in the country, another apparent victim of the “benign neglect” so many once-proud homes in New York City suffer from began to crumble late last night.
ABC 7 is reporting that firefighters and police were called to the scene of a partially collapsed vacant building on Ovington Avenue, between 5th Ave and 6th Ave, at around 3 a.m.
Authorities do not believe anyone was inside the older wood frame house – which is owned by “controversial” landlord Mousa Khalil - when the structural failure occurred.
As a precaution, around 15 residents of two adjacent buildings were evacuated during the initial assessment by public safety officials.
The small residential property had reportedly been boarded up and unoccupied for some time. The modest structure will most likely have to be leveled.
In similar news, an occupied brownstone in Carroll Gardens recently collapsed – probably as a result of decades of unchecked water damage – on June 28.
The valuable land many small-scale, historic homes sit on often proves more attractive to developers than the houses themselves.