More than two years out from the costly sinkhole in a section of W. Centre Street, the city plans to dole out roughly $89,000 more in settlements to businesses that were affected.
The first chunk is a $55,119.61 payout for the Insurance Company of Greater New York, which covered damages for a client at 111 W. Centre Street, as required by their contract. The second is a $33,960 settlement for Southern Management Corporation’s Gallery Towers apartment complex, which shares that address.
The sinkhole was caused by a four-foot hole in the top of a 6-foot-wide, century-old sewer line running beneath the road, which then collapsed. The repairs took six months in all and cost the city $4.5 million to repair. They also disrupted foot traffic for the then-new Mount Vernon Marketplace, and temporarily shuttered Trinacria, which took the time to renovate the Mount Vernon location before reopening that summer.
Baltimore’s Law Department has already paid to settle another lawsuit tied to the same sinkhole. In March the spending board approved a $156,000 settlement for 513 Park Avenue LLC, an apartment company that sued after water leaked into and damaged its building’s foundation during the city’s repairs.
City Solicitor Andre Davis elaborated in an email in March that “excessive stormwater overran the temporary infrastructure” during thunderstorms. Beyond structural damages, the apartment building also experienced rental losses, he had said.
Reached by email Tuesday, Davis said he had “nothing to add” about the details of the settlement.
The Law Department had previously said that there was one other remaining lawsuit connected to the W. Centre Street sinkhole, indicating these may be the final claims that needed settling.
