University tenant Floridita closed Tuesday due to a Columbia-mandated kitchen repair, but the University does not yet have the necessary permits to begin the work, according to the New York City Department of Buildings.
DOB spokesperson Carly Sullivan said two permits are needed for the repairs at Floridita, a Cuban restaurant on Broadway and 125th Street—one for construction and one for plumbing.
The DOB website shows one construction permit issued Oct. 20, 2009, but it expired on April 1. Sullivan confirmed that the permit was expired and must be renewed for work to begin, adding that Columbia has not yet obtained a plumbing permit, either.
Sullivan said it is not uncommon for landlords to obtain the two permits at different times, though she emphasized that legally, Columbia cannot do any work without them.
The permits will likely be obtained soon, and University spokesperson Victoria Benitez said the delay in getting them won’t affect the six-week estimate Columbia gave in a statement on Tuesday for completion of the repairs.
Santiago Carrion, a project manager with City Consultant Engineering, which represents Floridita owner Ramon Diaz for engineering projects, said it was unclear how long it would take to get the permits: “It can be a matter of a day or a matter of a week.”
Floridita can reopen once the repairs are complete, University officials said, though the situation is complicated by the restaurant’s possible permanent relocation—the culmination of over two years of heated negotiations over Diaz’s space in his current building, which is part of Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion plan.
Diaz first brought the condition of the kitchen floor to the University’s attention last October, but requested a temporary fix to allow him to operate uninterrupted through the busy holiday season. Columbia agreed, and stopgap repairs were certified to be safe for six months—a period that ended on Monday.
Marin Nanca Architects and engineering firm Ysrael A. Seinuk, P.C. inspected the kitchen last year and deemed it potentially dangerous, but Diaz said he wished the University had pursued alternatives such as an inspection by another engineer, which Diaz said he offered to pay for. That could have led to a 120-day extension on the six-month grace period, which might have been enough time to finalize the lease on the new location and keep Floridita’s 36 employees on the job.
The expired permit, if renewed, would allow Columbia to contract workers to “remove an existing build out floor and replace with new steel and concrete” and “install two new floor drains.”
The permit also read, “No structural stability will be affected with this work. No change in occupancy use or egress.” The University’s statement similarly indicated that what was mandated was not technically a shutdown of the entire restaurant, but simply of the kitchen—which, for a restaurant, worked out to the same thing.
Carrion said that while he didn’t know the details of the negotiations between Diaz and Columbia, “If they were planning to shut him down, the permits should’ve been obtained. … Every day he is closed down is a day he loses.”
Sam Levin contributed to this article.
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