The neighbor of a derelict building on Staten Island is calling on Vasilios Lefkaditis, Knox supervisor, to repair the building as it is owned by his company.

Property located at 148 Beach St. on Staten Island is owned by Shaw Funding. Records show Shaw Funding acquired the property in May 2014.

David Murphy, who owns the house next door, says that for the last two years the building has been in a condition that has put his own house at risk. He also says that scaffolding around the building encroaches on his property.

The New York City Department of Buildings has issued violations against Shaw Funding, saying that the building is a safety hazard and should be demolished.

Lefkaditis, answering Enterprise questions in an email, wrote that he and Shaw Funding hope to remediate the violations and move forward with demolishing the building in the next three months. The scaffolding, he said, is maintained by a third party.

“Half of the outstanding violations predate our ownership by as much as 13 years and the permitting and violation remediation process has been costly and daunting,” he wrote.

Murphy told The Enterprise that promises from Lefkaditis over the years to fix the situation have not been followed through on.

In a letter this week to the Enterprise editor, Murphy described how, since the roof collapsed in a storm in May 2017, scaffolding placed on the front and side of building, encroaches onto his property. He told The Enterprise that bricks falling from the building after its roof caved in destroyed a garbage pail and grill, which he said was later replaced. Shaw Funding also applied for a demolition permit, he said.

“I don’t understand how someone in a position such as his in your town can let something like this continue,” Murphy wrote of Lefkaditis.

Murphy told The Enterprise he has spoken to Lefkaditis and employees of Shaw Funding over the last two years, but the issues have not been resolved. He is not concerned about property values because he does not intend to sell his home, but he is worried about his safety.

Lefkaditis said to The Enterprise on Wednesday that Shaw Funding has spent about $65,000 to clean up the building.

“It was a literal junkyard,” he said.

He said that the process has been a “typical Staten Island transaction” in its length of time and complications. Other properties he has managed have gone through processes lasting five years, he said. The company manages almost 1,000 different properties, he said.

Lefkaditis said that, following the demolition of the brick building, he plans to put up four two-family homes in its place. Scaffolding was installed to mitigate the safety hazards, he said. Lefkaditis also said that there was no safety risk.

“We’ve been good neighbors,” he said.

Lefkaditis said that the company has paid for Murphy’s electric bill for the last two years. Murphy responded through The Enterprise that this is because the company has been using his electricity to power the lights on the scaffolding of the building.

“He’s not paying it just to be nice,” Murphy said.

“Half a dozen lights,” make up only a fraction of the bill, responded Lefkaditis.

On Friday, following the publication of this story, Murphy told The Enterprise that Shaw Funding is no longer paying his electric bill.

“I can pay; I’ve been able to pay it for a while,” said Murphy.

Murphy said that, upon being informed of the bill no longer being paid for, he disconnected the lights on the scaffolding from his house’s electric line. 

Lefkaditis declined to speak to The Enterprise on Friday. As of Tuesday afternoon, he has not responded to an email for comment.

The city building code requires sidewalk sheds to be lit at all times, either by daylight or electric light.

Murphy did note that a worker came by last week to clean up bricks and wood on the scaffolding to avoid any hazards of them falling, and said he was recently informed by Lefkaditis that he planned to demolish the building within the next three months.

But he also said that Lefkaditis contacted him, asking to rescind the letter to the Enterprise editor. Lefkaditis denies that he asked Murphy to do this.

In May 2017, the New York City Department of Buildings issued a violation against Shaw Funding after an inspection found the roof had partially collapsed. Abigail Kunitz, a spokeswoman for the department, said that since then the department has issued a number of violations against Shaw Funding.

City records show that the five violations issued against Shaw Funding between May 2017 and July 2018 are still unresolved, with over $30,000 in penalties due. A violation was also issued against a construction company last year for an expired permit to have a sidewalk shed erected at the building, but the construction company has resolved that issue.

Following an order from the Department of Buildings, Shaw Funding erected a sidewalk shed to protect the neighbor and passersby. The company also applied for a permit to demolish the building following a recommendation to do so by the department, but the application is incomplete and so a permit has not yet been issued, said Kunitz.

Murphy said that at one point he called the city’s non-emergency line, or 3-1-1, to report a violation, but he said that it was accidentally thought that he was reporting an emergency. Kunitz said that, according to the Department of Building records, a 3-1-1 call was made in 2018 that led to another violation being issued for failure to maintain the building or correct previous violations.

Records also show that, at one point in 2018, the city’s emergency response team issued violations, classifying the building as a Class 1 in severity, or immediately hazardous.

On Wednesday evening, Kunitz said in an email to The Enterprise that an inspection was done of the property that day and found “vertical cracks in the building’s façade and unsecured netting on the side of the building.” Two violations were issued: one for failure to maintain the building, and another for failure to correct previous violations.

Lefkaditis told The Enterprise he would respond to the violations when he was notified by the city.