Metro

Abandoned Jamaica ‘castle’ has become neighborhood eyesore

This man’s home is his castle — and a pain in the neck to everyone else.

The half-built remains of what looks like a medieval castle sit abandoned alongside the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, a testament to grand ambitions gone horribly wrong.

Joseph Jimenez and his wife Josette Said set out to build a dream home on a vacant plot of land in leafy Jamaica Estates, a neighborhood full of gracious tudors and colonials.

“We thought it was a good idea because the land was being used by vagrants,” said Martha Taylor, a member of the local community board and president of the Jamaica Estates Association.

Said, who bought the property in 2001, first applied for a permit with the city Department of Buildings in 2003, and began work in 2005.

The outline of a manor that would have made King Arthur feel at home, complete with turret-like accents, sprouted on the site, but then construction stalled.

Locals began catapulting complaints about the eyesore to the DOB and to local officials, who could do little other than scratch their heads.

“Unfortunately, the city does not have a mechanism to force people to finish building,” said Marie Adam-Ovide, the district manager of Community Board 8.

Now, a patchwork of graffiti-marred plywood forms a fence around the property. Some windows are boarded up or partially covered.

Jimenez and Said have failed to pay $2,900 in fines to the city for failing to secure the construction site and to post work permits.

The DOB said it appeared as if there had been no construction on the site for more than a year and the agency was monitoring the property to make sure it was safe and the building was stable.

The owners fell behind on their taxes and were in default on a $13,562 payment agreement. Another agreement was reached in March and they started making payments again, according to the city Finance Department.

Emilio Susa, a Long Island architect who took over the project from another architect about 11 years ago, said he hadn’t heard from Jimenez in years and assumed he ran out of money.

“Something obviously went wrong in his personal life,” Susa said.

Jimenez, a 57-year-old contractor who lives in Astoria, told The Post that his pet project was not abandoned at all.

“Neglected?” he asked. “It’s actually almost finished on the inside.”

He claims construction stalled after he suffered a heart attack and a stroke several years ago.

“I got sick,” he said. “I’m an older man and that’s what happened.”

He said the home would be finished “as soon as possible.”

Despite the fortress-like shell, the completed home was supposed to be more of a Mediterranean style, according to Susa, who said every parkway trip past the property is painful.

“I try to close my eyes,” he said. “It’s not very pretty.”