BROOKLYN — Climbers can again pack into Brooklyn Boulders, chalk up and scale the gym's faux rock walls with hundreds of others — about six months after the city partially shuttered the Gowanus building for code violations.
The Department of Buildings has granted the Gowanus gym at 575 Degraw St. near Third Avenue permission to allow up to 280 people inside at the same time, after capping entrants to 75 since April, according to gym and city officials.
The climbing gym opened in 2009 with a certificate of occupancy that listed it simply as a warehouse, according to DOB spokesman Alexander Schnell. It operated without an accurate certificate of occupancy for the next six years until gym staff amended its certificate last week, he added.
DOB inspectors ruled in May that Brooklyn Boulders lacked the "necessary safeguards in the event of an emergency."
The code violations didn't pose any structural dangers and climbers inside would be safe as long as the gym ran at diminished capacity, DOB officials said at the time.
But the city put a cap at 75 climbers until the gym straightened out its paperwork — leaving many climbers frustrated when BKB resorted to using a reservation system to decide which climbers would get first dibs.
"No one was happy about it. Brooklyn Boulders has become a part of people's lives. When you limit access to that, understandably people don't take that well," said Brooklyn Boulders founder and owner Lance Pinn.
The full reopening comes just in time for a party Friday for the seventh anniversary of the gym's founding, he said.
"Our parties tend to have more than 75 people and it would've been a lame party if we didn't get that [approval]," Pinn said.
In a Sept. 2 announcement about the reopening, emblazoned with the words "barely legal," staff welcomed back members with "open walls, arms and hearts."
"Everyone's excited. I'm excited. You couldn't find a happier team," Pinn said.
"If I could light off fireworks, I would," the owner added.
The party will also feature "casino games," food from Bareburger and "surprises," Pinn said.
"It will be a unique experience that they will never have experienced," Pinn said.
"I can't give away too many details or else it won't be a surprise. People like surprises," he added.
The party starts Friday at 6 p.m. and while members can attend for free, non-members need to pay $21. Those who want to participate in the event's climbing competition need to pay an additional $28.
