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Dykes Lumber Shuts Down Century-Old Hell's Kitchen Yard

By Rosa Goldensohn | March 31, 2015 11:57am | Updated on March 31, 2015 7:11pm
 The West 44th Street yard will move to East Harlem.
The West 44th Street yard will move to East Harlem.
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DNAinfo/Rosa Goldensohn

HELL’S KITCHEN — After 103 years in the neighborhood, Dykes Lumber Yard will leave Hell's Kitchen.

The yard on West 44th Street, still in its original 1912 building, was sold to condo developer Charles Friedman for just under 11 million dollars in June, according to city documents.  

The business shut its doors last week, moving the building supply shop to 124 E. 124th St. The closure was first reported on Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.

Dykes President Charles Kreyer said that the yard at 348 W. 44th St. was worth “an awful lot of money,” and that the family who owned the property and the lumber yard finally cashed in.

“I guess someone made them an offer they couldn’t refuse,” workers joked as they cleared out the shop Tuesday.

Friedman did not respond to a request for comment.

Kreyer also said Hell's Kitchen had become inhospitable to the business’ industrial needs.

“The city was coming around and making everything difficult,” he said. “People can't make deliveries, you can’t load up a truck.”

Boly Rosario, 51, had worked in the green brick building for 23 years.

“It’s an old building, man, it just sucks,” he said Tuesday as he was packing off final shipments of wood headed uptown. He’s got an extra hour of commute from New Jersey now, he said, and he’ll miss the old wood ceiling and the history of the place.

“This was like a home away from home,” he said. “But I guess it’s all business.”