Today marks the official opening of the Whole Foods in Brooklyn. Some are saying the new store ”Symbolizes Area’s Redevelopment”, while others are calling its the ‘end of Gowanus’. Either way the store is up and opening.
One of the main concerns of having a mega store being built on the Whole Foods lot at 3rd Ave and 3rd Street has been whether or not the landmarked Coignet Stone Company Building right on the corner is adequately protected. One of the rules giving to Whole Foods is that they have to preserve and repair the building. Clearly the repair part of the agreement was/is not slated till after the store has opened. We can understand that a focus by a big company might be on launching their new place and not the complex repair of an old, somewhat forgotten building.
But…
Last night we received a tip from a GYFO reader indicating that some of the facade of the building had fallen off! They say:
…a big part of the side of the staircase has crumbled overnight. It was not this way yesterday…and that whole front piece is missing.
In the picture they sent in the concrete that wrapped around the front part of the staircase is just simply gone.

top image sent in by L. Mariano taken by Martin Bisi

-We went by and took another photo to clarify the damage. -
More concerning is that according to the tipster the missing pieces are nowhere to be found and that they believe this most likely happened…
cause the staircase was behind fencing through yesterday, and it was removed sloppily
We wondered over after the sun came up and found tones of items lying right next to the Coignet Stone Company Building. Some of these items looked to be hastily placed (thrown) within the footprint of the history structure.

~derp! This looks like a great place to throw some wood. Who give a rats ass about hurting the side of the building or the old fencing. (not a real quote)
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