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Brooklyn Boulders Climbers Play Waiting Game After Building Code Violations

By Leslie Albrecht | May 6, 2016 2:10pm | Updated on May 9, 2016 8:56am
 Brooklyn Boulders has been forced to temporarily limit the number of climbers allowed to use its Gowanus facility because of a building code violation.
Brooklyn Boulders has been forced to temporarily limit the number of climbers allowed to use its Gowanus facility because of a building code violation.
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Facebook/Brooklyn Boulders

GOWANUS — A building code violation is slowing business at a popular Brooklyn climbing gym to a crawl.

City inspectors ordered Brooklyn Boulders on April 29 to limit the number of people in its facility at 575 Degraw St. to no more than 74 people, including staff, at any one time, a Department of Buildings spokesman said.

DOB inspectors put the restriction in place because Brooklyn Boulders wasn't operating with the proper certificate of occupancy and had more than 75 people in the sprawling facility but lacked "necessary safeguards in the event of emergency," a DOB spokesman said.

Brooklyn Boulders owner Lance Pinn said the problem is related to the arrival of a new dialysis center next door at 595 Degraw St.

"We just have a new neighbor sharing the building with us which has required us to separate our sprinkler systems," Pinn said in an email. "While that's going on we have to keep the occupancy down for fire safety. Should be taken care of within a matter of weeks and I think we'll be able to accommodate all our climbers by switching to a reservation system."

Climbers looking to get their wall crawling fix have had to put their names on a wait list or stand in lines of 20 people in some cases, frustrated members said on Facebook.

To compensate for the limited access to its Brooklyn facility — which has 22,000 square feet of climbing surfaces — Brooklyn Boulders is offering members free access to BKB Queensbridge, on 41st Avenue and 23rd Street in Long Island City, Queens, Pinn said.

The building code violation at 575 Degraw doesn't present a safety hazard as long as Brooklyn Boulders follows the order to limit the number of people, according to the DOB.

"There are currently no immediate structural dangers when occupancy remains below 75 people,” DOB spokesman Alexander Schnell said.

Brooklyn Boulders opened at 575 Degraw St. in 2009. The building was once a parking garage for the Daily News. The climbing gym has since expanded to Chicago and Somerville, Mass.

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