If you walk down Brighton Fifth Street away from the water, past the bustle of Brighton Beach Avenue, you’ll find yourself in what feels like the suburbs.

The streets are lined with sleepy one- and two-story houses, out of which an aging, longtime resident occasionally emerges to take out the trash. Continue on for another few blocks, and up on the left between two houses is a solid wooden fence about 8 feet high. Covered in graffiti, the fence encloses a plot of land – just visible through a gap – which is overgrown, and littered with trash. A makeshift black metal mailbox is bolted to the outside, overflowing with envelopes including a dozen letters from the New York City Environmental Control Board. Passersby can hear the grind of a construction site in the distance.

Construction sites are on hold all over the city. This one, on Brighton 5th Street, is supposed to be a four-story apartment building. Photo: David Kessel

This plot of land along Brighton Fourth Lane, designated 2952 Brighton Fifth St., is one of at least three stalled construction sites in Brighton Beach, according to the New York City Department of Buildings. These are construction projects that were started, but were, for one reason or another, put on hold. The neighborhood’s previously strong real estate market of a decade ago has petered out.

“It was like a California gold rush over here,” said Pat Singer, founder of the Brighton Neighborhood Association. “A Little Odessa gold rush. But now the gold rush has ended. The market’s gone down.”

The result is a real estate environment with prohibitively expensive condominiums and apartments, where tenants can no longer afford to move and some developers can no longer afford to build. To purchase a new condo in the area ranges from around $400,000 to over $1 million. Rent has gone sky high as well; even the government-subsidized, low-income housing under Section 8 can cost up to $1,400 for a two-bedroom apartment, or $1,100 for a one-bedroom, according to Singer. Developers say they cannot get the financing necessary to finish the projects. This leaves residents forced to live among vacant construction sites.

Pat Kessler, who with her husband has been running Kessler Real Estate in Brighton Beach since 1975, described the current environment as a “soft market.” There is simply little demand in the neighborhood for real estate.

The developer of 2952 Brighton Fifth St. knows this well. The address is currently classified as “vacant land,” according to the Buildings Department. The most recent certificate of occupancy for this property is stamped Feb. 18, 1959, when two families were living in the one-story house that stood there. Since then, this piece of property has passed through many hands and several phases of development.

In 2003, the Department of Buildings issued a work permit to Aaron Cheung to create a second floor extension. Later that year, it passed on to Ahmet Sangiray, who was issued the same permit. In September 2005, Carlos Surita, representing Surita Contracting, obtained a permit with the following work description: “full demolition – construction equipment – fence.” The contractors conformed to all 16 necessary codes prior to demolition, including rodent control, gas cut-off, and an asbestos report. Finally, in late September 2008, Yury Skalet, of Bais Contractors Inc., received a “new building” permit. The planned construction was to be a residential apartment, 11 dwellings in four stories, with a proposed start date of Sept. 26, 2008. So far, the only things erected have been a blue fence and a garden of weeds.

The construction site has now become not only an eyesore, but an environmental hazard as well. Since June 2008, there have been 14 complaints filed against the address, 2952 Brighton Fifth St. Almost every complaint in some way concerns the fence surrounding the property – part of it collapsed or protruding nails presented a safety hazard. The fence was insufficient. The site had become unsanitary, and people were allowing their dogs to get in. All complaints have been resolved, except for one active complaint, from Aug. 3, 2009, about a stalled construction site. During the five inspections since the complaint was filed, the dispositions read, “excavation deteriorating, no immediate threat” — until Oct.7, when they began to read, “emergency declaration filed.”

In 2009, there were two Department of Buildings violations and 14 Environmental Control Board violations filed against this address, all of which are still active. Most of the ECB violations are for inadequate housekeeping, or “failure to safeguard persons/property affected by construction.” The combined total penalty imposed for all these violations is $90,500. Under “status,” each ECB violation reads, “No compliance recorded.” A few of these violations list Yury Skalet as the respondent; he works for Bais Contractors, but doesn’t know anything about the property on Brighton 5th Street.

During years of inaction, stalled building construction can lead to environmental concerns, if not properly maintained. Photo: David Kessel

The neighbors do know something about the property, though. For people who live nearby, or come up against these sites on a daily basis, its presence is felt. “I think it’s nasty,” said Wilfedo Hernandez, an 18-year-old student at William E. Grady High School on Brighton Fourth Road. He passes this vacant lot twice a day, on his walk to and from school. “It looks unpresentable, unsanitary – people throw garbage in there, and they’ve been saying it’s a work in progress for years.”

Traditionally, construction permits had a shelf-life of one year from the date they were issued, or after work was suspended. If developers had suspended work for over two years, they may not have been able to reinstate their permit. In order to combat this, the city introduced legislation that will make it easier for these stalled construction projects to be restarted. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, and Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert D. LiMandri developed the new legislation, which was signed into law in October 2009. Participating developers will now be required to notify the Buildings Department when work stalls and develop a detailed safety monitoring and inspection plan. In return, they will be able to renew building permits for up to four years, instead of starting over or going through the process of applying for a new permit.

“In every corner of our City, we can see the effect of the economic crisis in the stalled construction projects that are scattered throughout our neighborhoods,” said Quinn, in a June press release about the new legislation. “If these sites are not properly maintained, they can become safety hazards to residents and even havens of criminal activity. Our legislation is a real two-fer, in that it will allow us to have these sites maintained while construction is halted and to be ready to hit the ground running once the economy improves.”

This may be good news for the developers of another property, a stone’s throw from 2952 Brighton Fifth St. If you turn left from there onto Brighton Fourth Lane, and walk two blocks along a narrow path skirting houses on either side, you’ll come to another stalled building, but in a more advanced phase of construction. The building at 2952 Brighton 3rd St. is what Singer refers to as a “skeleton.” Another wooden fence encircles four floors — just the floors — with a strip of stone facade running down the center, the windows already cut out of it. It’s been that way for about two years now, according to Eugenia Iofe at Construction & Custom Remodeling Ltd. She said putting construction on hold is a matter of financing.

“Banks don’t give mortgages for construction anymore,” Iofe said. “We contracted with many banks. We worked with them as a construction company. We had good credit history. We knew everyone in the bank, like the underwriters, and had a good relationship with everybody. But now many of them have stopped giving construction mortgages altogether.”

For the time being, it appears as though these projects are going to stay as they are — an economic barometer in Brighton Beach, waiting for the market to improve.