Store facades collapse in Hewlett

Four storefront facades in Hewlett collapsed on Tuesday, covering the eastbound lane of Broadway, near the intersection of Franklin Avenue, with a 6-foot by 80-foot mound of brick and broken glass.

Workers, diners and customers inside New Great Wall Chinese Restaurant, Looks Unlimited, Gold Standard and a soon-to-open Sprint store at 1197 Broadway ran out of the buildings to safety as their street-facing facades crashed to the street at around noon. No injuries were reported, but the collapse closed a section of Broadway for several hours as police investigated.

Though officials at the Town of Hempstead Building Department and Public Information declined to comment on a possible cause of the collapse, Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Chief Michael Sasso said he was "fairly certain" that water had permeated the buildings' walls, causing the bricks to separate.

"It was like a domino effect," said bus driver Gary Padin, who was waiting at the intersection of Franklin and Broadway for a light to change when he noticed dust in the air, then a shaking sidewalk tree, and finally bricks beginning to fall, causing mass chaos.

"I looked outside and saw dust everywhere and things flying," said Jodie Cohen, who works at Salon Aqua, across the street from the affected businesses.

Kristen Altrui, who works at Pravana, a beauty salon at 1189 Broadway, ran outside with several of her co-workers after she felt vibrations from what she thought was a car crashing into the adjacent New Great Wall restaurant. Workers from National Grid, the natural gas and electric utilities company, who were working nearby, shouted at Altrui and others to evacuate the store.

Magic Sakowicz was in the middle of a transaction with a customer inside Gold Standard when he heard what he described as a loud bang, and Gold Standard's front door was suddenly blockaded by fallen bricks. Sakowicz told his customer to go out the back, grabbed some personal items, including his cell phone, and left. "Everybody was fine, but everybody was shaken up," he said.

Sakowicz, who used to be in the construction business, attributed the collapse to water damage to the roof. "There's poor maintenance in the building," he said.

Gold Standard will now have to wait for the Town of Hempstead Building Department to issue a permit to reopen before they can resume operations at what was a newly renovated store. "It was a brand new store, open three months," Sakowicz lamented. "Business was picking up."

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