Almost a year ago, a massive explosion destroyed three buildings in the East Village, causing dozens of injuries and killing two people inside a Second Avenue restaurant. And now the blast site's vacant space is back on the real estate market.
George Pasternak, the owner of a small building and two stores that once occupied 123 Second Avenue, has tapped Compass brokerage to sell his now-vacant property for $9.7 million, according to the Post.
Last month, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance indicted five people on charges including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault, and reckless endangerment in connection with the explosion, after an investigation determined it was the result of a plot between Maria Hrynenko (the owner of the other two destroyed buildings at 119 and 121 Second Avenue), her son Michael Hrynenko, and contractor Dilber Kukic to cheat on multiple ConEd gas inspections. With help from two plumbers, Kukic and the younger Hrynenko illegally ran gas through rubber hoses from one building to another. On March 26, 2015, during a ConEd pressure test, the two men accidentally left gas valves uncapped, leading to a gas leak and the explosion. Nicolas Figueroa, 23, and Moises Locon, 26, were killed in the resulting blast.
In the aftermath of the explosion, each of the three buildings impacted by the blast were bulldozed by the city—a service for which they charged each owner $350,000. The tabloid also reports that the lots have since been reclassified from Tax Class 2 apartments to Tax Class 4 vacant lots, which will raise property tax rates beginning this summer.
"We understand that the development community has a certain interest," Gabriele Sewtz, a Compass broker, told the Post. "The timing is right [for Pasternak] to let go and start over and give someone else a chance to develop the property." Each of the vacant lots contains 10,000 buildable square feet, which means a shiny new condo is certainly on its way.
