Fire and EMS was on the scene yesterday afternoon of a partial building collapse at the old Pappas Tomato packing factory (1401 Okie Street) in Ivy City. The factory is located just behind the Hecht Warehouse that is anchoring much of the neighborhood's redevelopment. The Pappas Tomato building is, like the main warehouse, a Douglas Development property (Jemals Pappas Tomoato, LLC). Plans call for the building to hold retail and a little light industrial in the form of coffee roasting at a Compass Coffee shop. No injuries were reported. In a later tweet @DCFireEMS speculated that yesterday's strong winds may have caused the collapse. Thanks to @ker_dc for the initial heads up about the collapse.
Here's a closer view from that same BZA rendering
Large portion building collapse - NE Washington - so far no indication of anyone trapped or injured pic.twitter.com/nNhh7X5CL0— DC Fire and EMS (@dcfireems) May 15, 2016
9 comments:
12:51 Anonymous: Do you know how long, by law (if there is such a law) a developer can sit on a property s/he owns until they have to develop it? I can't seem to find an applicable law.
Why would that be a law? Hopefully it's not.
@12:51 - not sure about the law but in practice I guess until the DC government decides to increase tax amount on a vacant/blighted property and the owners decide to do something about it so they don't pay higher taxes.
just hit MOM'S last night and had to, for the third time, deal with panhandler interrupting traffic turning into Ivy City from NY Ave. WOW. the new development seems to be great for local residents AND local vagrants! not sure i would want to live next to that situation. are there any plans to move the trough from that immediate, adjacent location?
Has anyone else been confronted inside MOM'S by one of the panhandlers?
12:51,
You won't find a law exactly like that, but the higher tax rates on vacant properties should serve as motivation to develop or sell. Depending on the sort of project and funding you could have contractual obligations to meet certain progress marks by certain dates.
Unusual....
I hope the building is structurally sound elsewhere.
This isn't the sort of thing to inspire confidence.
Saw on a twitter feed that they were tearing the building down. Damn Douglas Development for destroying that place.
Unfortunately, a lot of scumbags get around the tax law through the loophole that says if you're in the process of repairing/renovating the property you won't get hit with increased vacant property taxes. There's a house that has been boarded up on my street for years and I think someone comes by occasionally and hammers a nail into a wall just to get out of high taxes. It may or may not be Donald Trump.
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