Brooklyn's Iconic Kentile Floors Sign To Find New Location
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A 50-year-old outdoor sign that has come to symbolize Brooklyn's industrial heritage will come down, but will eventually be reinstalled.
The owner of the warehouse building beneath the 8-story Kentile Floors sign has agreed to donate it to the nonprofit Gowanus Alliance.
The New York Times says City Councilman Brad Lander helped broker the deal a week after the sign's possible demolition was revealed last week, prompting an immediate "Save Our Sign'' campaign.
The 8-story steel structure is made up of 20-foot-high letters. Lander says the warehouse building owner, Elyahu Cohen, has agreed to bear the extra cost to preserve the sign.
In its heyday, 400 people worked at the Kentile Floors which made, among other things, asbestos tiles that were billed as the "easiest to keep clean," according to a 1950s TV ad.
When the company went under in the 1990s, the sign, which is currently surrounded by scaffolding, stayed behind.
The Gowanus Alliance says it will "find a marvelous location'' for the architectural piece.
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