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Leery Locals Say Something’s Off at Target Site;City Agrees

On July 19, a worker dampens dust on an excavator at the construction site. Photo by Tom Cayler.

BY WINNIE McCROY | The dust went flying and so did the fur, at a Midtown Westconstruction site currently in its excavation phase.

Locals say XIN Development is not doing enough to clear the air and control the noise at thefuture home of a luxury apartment building with a Target store on the ground floor.

“As soon as excavation started several weeks ago, we had dust pouring out into the street, withthree machines working simultaneously, but only one hose man. But when we spoke to themabout it, they just said they were within DOB [New York City Department of Buildings]

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guidelines,” said Tom Cayler, president of the 517-525 W. 45th Street Tenant Association.

XIN Development, the US arm of Beijing-based Xinyuan Real Estate, secured permits from theDOB in May to start excavation work at 615 10th Ave., between W. 44th and 45th Sts. The full-block project came with a $108 commercial loan from Bank of the Ozarks, who also provided a$27M bridge loan in January 2016 to help Xinyuan purchase the former Speedway gas stationfor $57.5M.

The company intends to build a 29,000-square-foot Target retail store, with seven stories on topfeaturing 82 units of residential housing (with four large apartments on the top floor). By July,they had filed permits for the mixed-use condo and began excavation for the foundation.

A rendering of the Target in Hell’s Kitchen. Image courtesy Target.

Once the dust started flying, neighbors began contacting Community Board 4 (CB4), electedofficials, the DOB, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) tocomplain, with the city’s 311 Service Request Map indicating that about 25 complaints weresubmitted in July alone from residents adjacent to the site.

“I personally try to avoid walking near the construction site on Tenth, but I inevitably have tobike past it on my way to the Greenway, and have smelled and seen what feels like toxicity in theair,” said Chana Widawski, co-chair of the West 45th/46th Street Block Association. “Neighborsthat live closer share daily photographs of the billowing dust; their vantage point indicatesminimal dust abatement measures. Some of the restaurants have even had to close outdoorseating because of it.”

Local residents have reported that construction work on the site begins at 7 a.m. every weekdayand goes on until almost 6 p.m. at night (after CB4 rejected XIN’s requests to work seven days aweek). But Cayler said that their single hose man disconnects from the fire hydrant at 4 p.m.,letting the dust fly where it may, creating problems.

Apparently, the DOB and DEP agreed. On July 11, the DOB inspected the site and issued twoviolations, one for concrete work that ran contrary to approved plans, and another for highvibration readings. And the next day, July 12, inspectors from the DEP issued a violation for“failure to control dust.”

“Frankly, whenever you make complaints as a citizen, no pun intended — you just hold yourbreath that some inspector will show up and see what you see,” said Cayler. “So last week whenthe DEP issued a violation for work outside of the scope, I was just like ‘Thank God!’ For theseguys, until the DOB or DEP shuts them down for a couple of days, they could care less. We haveto assume they are going to continue to be this way until elected officials put pressure on cityagencies to get a stop work order and clean up their site.”

“My office has been in direct communication with XIN Development to ensure they take steps tominimize the impact that this construction project has on the community,” said CouncilmemberCorey Johnson in an email statement to this publication. “Developers have a responsibility tomitigate the impact of construction on the community, especially dust created during thesummer months when air quality suffers most. While I appreciate that XIN Development hastaken steps like installing sound deadening blankets to reduce noise and more personnel tospray down dust to address these issues, we will continue to work with our city agencies toensure their compliance.”

In a July 19 letter to DOB Manhattan Borough Commissioner Martin Rebholz and DEP ActingCommissioner Vincent Sapienza, CB4 District Manager Jesse Bodine expressed the “sincereconcern and frustration with the lack of environmental mitigation plans” at the site, and urgedthem to put all current excavation permits on hold for the location.

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Bodine spoke of a year of good-faith talks with XIN Development, during which time CB4repeatedly highlighted the communities’ concerns regarding the environmental impact theproject would have on neighboring schools and residents. XIN Development had “repeatedlystated the project would meet city regulations and work with the agencies to follow bestpractices,” but Bodine, in his July 19 letter, expressed disappointment with the currentmitigation efforts, saying, “This was not done and it is clear that only the bare minimum in termsof mitigation is being done currently.”

XIN Development has installed sound-deadening blankets on two sets of chain link gates. Photo courtesyXIN Development.

After noting site visits by representatives from the DOB, DEP, and NYPD, who reported minimalmitigation techniques, and pointing to violations issued by the DOB and DEP, the CB4 letternoted they “do not believe that work on the site should continue until XIN Development and itscontactor enact a complete alternative mitigation plan that addresses dust, air quality, noise andvibration and that plan be reviewed by the enforcing city agencies, the elected representatives,and the community.”

In a July 20 email, Hana Kolarikova of XIN Development said the company is taking measuresto minimize the impact on the community, assuring that “we have had several visits from DOBand DEP’s representatives and if a violation was found, it was cured immediately.”

On the recommendation of the DEP inspector, they installed sound-deadening blankets on thetwo sets of chain link gates to deal with noise decibel readings exceeding the allowable range.They spoke to the excavation company about the dust issue, and added another hose man.

“They confirmed that they added another water cannon, so there are two of them now and werequested they added the second man, which they confirmed they would do,” said Kolarikova.“Finally, we have five line-drilling machines onsite. We only run one or two at a time and eachmachine has a water hose connected to it, so there is no dust being generated by this operation.”

Kolarikova said that there are now no open DOB violations, adding that they were still lookingfor additional actions they could implement to improve the situation. She also noted that theproject was a month ahead of schedule, saying, “Hopefully, we can finish sooner and expose ourneighbors to the construction work for a shorter time period.”

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Community members complained that only one hose man(pictured here) was mitigating dust, although two excavationmachines were in operation. XIN Development now says that

have hired a second hose man, so there is no dust beinggenerated by this operation. Photo by Tom Cayler.

2 Comments Sort by

Pat Ru ·New York, New York

These people don't care. We had the same problem near us withthe 3rd water tunnel being built. There was blasting, dust, smoke,gas fumes-no one cared. My animals got sick, my family got sick-no one cares!! Good luck!! NO ONE CARES!!!Like · Reply · 43w

Marilyn Rivera ·New York, New York

My main concern was not so much the noise but the air quality.You hear the same complaints from residents at other constructionsites and very little, if anything at all, is done about it. I believe you100% Pat Ru. NO ONE CARES!!!Like · Reply · 43w

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