From the Queens Chronicle:The house known as the Steinway Mansion is back on the market after a two-week hiatus, with a listing price of $3.495 million. Sotheby’s International Realty has taken over Prudential Douglas Elliman’s effort to sell the landmarked home, though historical experts in Queens and people associated with Steinway & Sons, the storied piano company, continue to hope the house might one day be available for public use.
Just whose turn it will be is exactly what Queens historians are worried about. Because the building is landmarked it can’t be torn down, but various historical societies have lobbied the city to buy the house so it can become something more than a privately owned anachronism.
The house is within walking distance of Steinway & Sons, the site where what many consider to be the world’s finest pianos have been made in much the same way since the 1870s. But financial concerns — the company’s gross profits in 2010 were a fraction of the house’s listing price — have prevented the company from buying the property.
“We fully support efforts to turn the mansion into a historic venue that would be accessible to the public,” Anthony Gilroy, a representative for the company, wrote in an email. “However, with the budgetary realities that we face, our commitment must remain that of ‘supporter’ rather than ‘financier.’”
21 comments:
"Because the building is land-marked it can’t be torn down"
I'm not to sure about that anymore crappy.
The Gatsby House in Sands Point was land-marked. It is now in the landfill and 5 Eurofucco & stone Persian palaces are going up
1-You buy an old mansion, run out of $$ and cry "hardship"
2- Make backroom deals with the local politicians to get got the property sub divided.
3-You then strip & sell off the interior (including floors, fixtures and fireplace mantels) destroy, roof, foundation, windows to the point of accidental fire, gets condemned or needs an emergency knocked down on a Holiday, Saturday or Sunday morning.
4-Re-sell as 5 separate "builders dream" property's
Fines are nothing more then a tax to get things done to these builders (or should I say pirates)
Now add corrupt politicians, DOB lapdogs and a police commissioner ALL who all put on knee pads every time Bloomberg calls that Steinway mansion doesn't stand a chance
Mallony ; $0
Gianaris : $0
Simotas / Stavisky : $0
Vallone : $0
Marshall : $0
"Its the mayor's fault."
While the Steinway Mansion Rots:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles
/mi_m3601/is_32_57/ai_n57643765/
While the Steinway Mansion Rots:
http://www.nysenate.gov/blogs/2011/mar/09/senator-gianaris-annonces-compromise-increase-dog-access-gantry-plaza-state-park
While the Steinway Mansion rots:
http://www.votesmart.org/npat.php?can_id=127911
http://www.qgazette.com/news/2011-07-27/Features/Simotas_Presents_Citation
_Of_Honor_To_Musical_Saw_.html
http://www.votesmart.org/npat.php?can_id=55455
You haven't done your homework again Joe.
Steinway House is a MUNICIPAL exterior landmark.
Under the law it CANNOT be torn down.
The Gatsby House, we believe, had NO SUCH legal protection.
P.S.
Believe it or not...the NYC Landmark Law is the STRONGEST such law in the nation.
Re Anon sheep
"Under the law it CANNOT be torn down"
LOL since when do builders and all these "new people" abide by the "Under the law" ?
What "physical entity" stops a vacant building from being torched or slowly stripped & destroyed from the inside out by its own owner ?
Does superman come down from the sky and stop bulldozers when the cops and enforcement aren't around or refuse to show up ?
A signature or document NOW MEANS NOTHING to some friend of the mayor, wise ass lawyer or overseas millionaire.
Sotheby's is the worst thing in the world. They don't give a crap, list internationally and sell to anybody.
"Laws and landmark preservation" LOL what good is it if nothings enforced or watched.
Good chance every parquet floor and fireplace mantle in the Steinway mansion is already been pilfered and sold.
Look at whats been going on in Maspeth with illegal destruction & construction and screwing of the people who been there generations.
The mayor wants Queens destroyed and all the ancestors of the people that built it OUT
Gatsby House had legal protection when it was owned by the Payson family. The Peyson's left most all their property's to the church who cashed out straight to developers.(note all the sinking moldy cheapo McMansion developments on Shelter Rock Road) Mets owner Charles Shipman Payson died and left the house to hi swife
The Gatsby House last owner bought it around 2003 (then slowly destroyed it over 7 years wile building other projects) They got landmark status dumped and buried when the incorporated village of Sands Point had no choice but to condemn the building.
Story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1377951/Scott-Fitzgeralds-Great-Gatsby-house-famous-Roaring-Twenties-parties-demolished.html
Good chance a like developer who poses his wife and family "looking for a nice old home" may buy the Steinway mansion and pull the same crap.
...Just like all the old N Shore mansions the same dam tactics and things going to happened
Historial Society from some unnamed upstate county making discrete calls about what protection the Landmark Designation gives the mansion.
Three things for sure:
1. the future of this place is grim on this track
2. this is the fault of the borough political leadership for letting this happen (look at St Saviours rotting in a box, or Browne house now in its 2nd decade).
3. no one will blame them - they will get off the hook.
The Landmarks Law is enforced unequally in this city - the mansion was designated in the first flush of Landmark designations before the process became corrupted with politics and for all intents and purposes, for the benefit of the privileged few.
The silence of the preservation community give mute signal that no one important will stop this.
Compare the throat clearing and attention that they give that puny little Terra-Cotta building proof positive that its the politics and the people, not the heritage and history that is important.
In other words, Tammany Hall would be protected while Penn Station would get torn down.
You forgot one thing:
You can be assured that there will be a torrent of anti-landmark propaganda fed to Queens as this structure is picked clean.
Historial Society from some unnamed upstate county making discrete calls about what protection the Landmark Designation gives the mansion.
WHY - ARE THEY GOING TO MOVE IT SO THE LOCAL TALENT HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE THE LAND USEFULL???
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world
/2011/07/29/bs.seneca.dig.nyc.cnn?hpt=hp_t2
Now THATS history! A broken beer bottle, a shoe insole, a few scraps of pottery.
I bet they didn't play the blame game with the mayor.
Amazing how life is different once you move out of 'Honest Joe' Crowley's bailiwick.
Surprised? You shouldn't be. He moved his own family out.
If the Steinway Mansion gets destroyed its the fault of the politicians and more significantly, the preservation community, for not applying public pressure to those dim-bulbs.
Considering how the city spends money like a drunken sailor, "there is no money" is a bullshit line by any pol that says it.
There is no excuse for destroying this building except stupidity, greed and ignorance.
There we go....it's Joe blow from the windy city....mouthing off in thoughtless anger again.
The city's landmark protection DOES NOT include the interior.
Steinway can be gutted....but it's exterior IS protected by law.
However, the owner can do what he wants with the property.
They can build condos in the yard like "Kiska" did at the landmark Hammerstein House....or whatever they wish.
You left out going up in the attic to give a couple good kicks and compromise the roof.
Like magic you create the epidemic of rotten timbers and electric in a couple years. ---add some mice and rats.
It's the political rats I'm more worried about.
Il Toppo (Italian, for rat) Di Vallone, for instance!
Maybe Mike Nussbaum will convert it into an exclusive massage parlor/whore house.
Ackerman has got many "connections" in the Orient for some tasty Asiatic masseuses!
I likee lickee your ----"!
And Shenckler's "Multi Media" can do all the ads!
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