Point Breeze halted for violations
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Town building inspector Bernie Bartlett has issued a stop-work order to the Point Breeze Hotel for exceeding approved renovation work.

Work on the Point Breeze Hotel is on hold while the HDC and the Building Department await a demolition permit application and updated documentation from hotel owner Bob Matthews. PETER B. BRACE/The Independent

"The job is shut down until we have a complete set of plans for the whole project," Bartlett said about the order he issued in early March. "We went there and told them they were beyond the work they were allowed to do."

This latest bump in the road for developer Bob Matthews began when Toscana Corporation, which had jacked up the hotel's main building to put a foundation beneath it, removed the steel Ibeams supporting the structure, according to Bartlett.

Because Toscana needed its girders for other jobs, Matthews' crews installed their own steel frame to support the building, and in the process, removed part of the first floor of the building and exterior sheathing without a demolition permit from the Historic District Commission, said HDC Administrator Mark Voigt.

"For the HDC, it's the removing of the first floor," said Voigt. "When they caught them, they had removed a portion of the first floor. They currently have a request in to remove all of the first floor."

Voigt said he expects Matthews' team to submit an application for a demolition permit in time for it to be reviewed at the Historic District Commission's March 27 meeting.

Bartlett, meanwhile, said he is waiting for the building to be recertified by the job's new engineer, Nick Laudono, and for Matthews' architect to verify how they are going to proceed with the building.

Matthews' island attorney, Sarah Alger, alluded to Laudono's uncertainty over how the HDC functions as the reason why part of the first floor of the building was removed without a demolition permit. Alger added that she is doing what she can to address the HDC's and Bartlett's concerns.

"In the course of doing some limited work to remove steel and other material owned by Toscana, judgments were made in the field as a result of the misunderstanding of the rule that went beyond what had been approved by the Building Department and the HDC," she said. "The owners are working with the Building Department and the HDC to correct those issues and obtain the necessary permits to move forward with the project."

Matthews received a special permit to redevelop the Point Breeze Hotel in July 2005 and HDC approval on Nov. 29 of that year for the renovation of the existing hotel building and reconstruction of the hotel restaurant. Phase one of the plans also includes replication of the original hotel as a 4,091-square-foot addition to the current main building.

Additionally, Matthews' crews will be linking the addition, main building, restaurant with a terrace and 14 parking spaces beneath it, and a new swimming pool behind the hotel.

Phase two, not entirely permitted yet, includes three tennis courts (where the cottages are now along Easton Street) and a 49-space parking garage beneath them.

Ironically, Matthews got his 4-1- approval from the HDC in just two meetings, pleasing the commission with his commitment to rebuilding the original hotel to its former grandeur and authenticity. Ripping out part of the first floor and its sheathing, however, does not show the HDC and Voigt that Matthews' is committed to this effort.

"Bob Matthews said he was going to be more retentive about saving his building than the HDC, but I haven't

seen it," said Voigt. I