A condo in Midtown Manhattan has been under construction since March 2017, and until now, the residents still don’t know when they could return to the same living environment again as before.

“This building used to be extremely beautiful, it was almost a landmark with nearly a century of history,” said Lisa Saharick, a resident who settled her family at this boutique place 16 years ago. “But now it is all a mess.”

Five years ago, the building underwent a renovation. Five small window boxes on either side of the front door were removed and replaced with two large glass display windows. This change was made to accommodate the opening of a hair salon called Blo Blow Dry Bar, which is an international franchise in which Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow is its business partner. Blo Blow Dry Bar’s leasing on the ground floor of the condo was operated by Eastern Consolidated. This commercial real estate brokerage firm was shut down in 2018.

According to the description of residents, the facade around the two windows occurred cracks, decays, and water seepage problems since the alternation has been done.

“To get those big windows there, you have to cut through brick and mortar,” said Saharick, “and that was the problem, the building cannot tolerate the weight that two giant storefront windows have.”

Blo Blow Dry Bar ended its service on East 49th Street in 2020, and has not responded to the Midtown Gazette’s request for comment.

Over the past five years, construction workers regularly worked on this site to repair the defective parts of the facade.

“They were here doing these things when I first came to work here two years ago,” said Jory Pacio, an Amazon carrier working in this neighborhood, “Sometimes those workers work earlier than me, they start to show up there at about 8am and leave at around 3 to 4pm.”

Pacio also said that the construction tools that were laid on the ground made the sidewalks in the area a bit crowded. “Those workers would use ladders or just crawl on the ground to do their work, plus some tools with engines, and there were wires all over the ground,” said Pacio.

This maintenance work not only continues to affect the street environment around the condo, but also poses a safety risk to pedestrians. Saharick was cut in the eye by some flying chips of the wall when she was walking her dog in front of the condo on June 10.

“The way they are fixing it now is inappropriate. They are shaving the facade with a sanding machine in an open area, without any warning line or protections,” Saharick recalled, “They failed to protect the tenants and they’re trying to hide the flaws. They try to hide the error.”

Steven Tabach, who is the current owner of one of the two front stores at this location, also said shaving the facade is not the way to cure the problem.

“To solve the issue completely, you need to replace the windows that the building can suffer from,” said Tabach, “but once the current windows are removed, the bricks will fall apart.”

Tabach started this business three years ago and the exterior-building construction work has had an impact on his operation. “Nobody is happy about having construction equipment around their stores, it affects the visibility of the business, ” said Tabach.

This construction project has cost the 45-unit residents in this condo a total amount of $225,000, but the issue is still on-going. Saharick and several other residents have been working constantly with the board of the building and demanding an answer from it. The board of the building has not responded to the Midtown Gazette’s request for comment.

“No one expected this when they first moved to this gorgeous building,” said Saharick, “stores could relocate, contractors would shut down, and they just left this place in shambles.”