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Unauthorized Gas Work Sparks Explosion Fears for Tenants Above Barneys

By Jeff Mays | June 1, 2015 10:25am
 The project in Chelsea has been cited for unauthorized gas work.
Co-op Owners Above Barney's Downtown Flagship Say Retailer a Bad Neighbor
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CHELSEA — Con Edison shut off cooking gas indefinitely to the 159 co-op apartments above Barneys' new Chelsea store after unauthorized work was performed on the gas line there, DNAinfo New York has learned.

The news has residents of the building on 7th Avenue between West 16th and West 17th streets on edge following the deadly East Village explosion that left two people dead and dozens injured. Investigators believe an illegal gas connection is to blame.

"It's really nerve wracking that gas lines may have been tapped illegally," said Tony Phillips, 46, a journalist who has been a shareholder at the co-op for 20 years.

Barneys is currently renovating its original Chelsea location to be its new 57,000-square-foot flagship store. The building was built in 1931, and studio apartments there sell for $650,000

Con Edison spokesman Alan Drury said utility workers were at the building for a meeting with a plumber to discuss future gas work on May 18 when they noticed that someone had installed an unauthorized connection providing cooking gas to the apartments above. The Department of Buildings had not certified that the work had been done correctly.

Without that certification from DOB, Con Edison had yet to test whether the new connection was safe, so it shut off gas to the building, Drury said.

Barneys spokeswoman Ashley Calandra said the gas connection in question was not work done by Barneys contractors.

"Over the course of a routine inspection of our permitted work, Con Edison discovered a preexisting base-building issue unrelated to Barneys, which necessitated the shutdown of the existing gas to the building," said Calandra. "We are fully cooperating with the condominium board, as well as Con Edison, who has assured us that they will restore gas service once the residential building passes all safety protocols."

Con Edison said they did not investigate who was responsible for the unauthorized gas work or when it might have been done.

"Our role is to shut off to protect public safety and then turn gas back on once checks show it is safe to do so," Drury said.

Notes to residents from the building's co-op board blamed the gas shutoff on a "misunderstanding between plumbers performing work for Barneys and ConEd," and subsequently blamed just ConEd.

Residents believe Barneys is passing the buck.

"They are saying it's not us, it's everyone else," said co-op owner and attorney Yetta Kurland. "It's the same hubris they've had with this project from the beginning."

Barney's announced at the end of 2013 that it was returning to a 57,000-square-foot space in the Chelsea building that was the site of its original location in 1923.

The company left the space in 1997 four years after moving to its flagship Madison Avenue store. The Chelsea building was previously occupied by Loehmann's, which closed.

When Barneys began renovating the space, it sent around canisters of popcorn with a note saying it wanted to be good neighbors.

But for residents, who say they've had to put up with loud construction, noise and dust, the indefinite shut-off of gas is the last straw.

"They have been horrible neighbors, with loud noise, major dust and service interruptions throughout the building," Kurland said.

Some residents have been without hot water for six months. Others are considering selling their apartments.

"I haven't turned on a tap and gotten clean water since construction began," Phillips said.

Kurland filed a lawsuit charging that the noise and dust have made her apartment unusable. She hired Olmsted Environmental Services, which found that dust in her one bedroom apartment contained respiratory irritants such as quartz, gypsum and fibrous glass.

Quartz has been found to cause lung cancer and lung disease, according to the company's report.

Jackhammering and the grinding of metal that occasionally shakes the building sometimes starts as early as 7 a.m., residents said.

To mitigate the problems with dust, the report suggested HEPA filters and isolation barriers.

Barneys denied most of the claims, saying workers start construction on the lower floors between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and delay the start of work on the fourth floor, which is closest to residents, until 10 a.m., even though they could legally start three hours earlier.

"We care deeply about all of our neighbors, and sympathize with the inconvenience that they are facing," Calandra said.

More than 70 apartment owners have signed a petition asking Barneys to take steps to alleviate the problems caused by construction.