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Five Pointz will outlast the Crane Street Studios housed inside the Long Island City graffiti mecca, but the clock has begun ticking for the entire building, which may be replaced by luxury apartments in as little as 18 months.

Jerry Walkoff, the owner of the property, said he “literally cried” when he realized he would be unable to secure the necessary Certificate of Occupancy from the Buildings Department to allow the roughly 100 artists to continue working in the space he had previously rented to them at rates he subsidized below market value.

The building, located at 45-46 Davis St., was hit with 11 violations by the DOB after Nicole Gagne, an artist who rented studio space, was seriously injured on April 10 after a staircase in the back of the building collapsed beneath her.

A vacate order was issued for the building and the artists were forced to seek other work space.

“Everywhere else I’ve looked, it’s twice as much rent for half the space,” said Anki King, an artist who has worked inside Crane Street Studios for a decade. She said she will miss the community of artists brought together under one roof as she hunts for new space to share with a handful of other displaced artists.

“They just put 80 people out of work,” said Walkoff, “Isn’t that a shame? And the ones who do go back to work [elsewhere] are now even poorer people.”

Walkoff insists that he wants to preserve the artists’ studios, but he is frustrated by the demands of DOB, which did not accept his application for a revised certificate of occupancy citing the partition walls that need to be raised to the ceiling or removed entirely to comply with building code.

Walkoff insists the partition walls are not the only problem and he estimates the total cost of the changes to be between $500,000 and $1 million. He argued that he is willing to fix whatever is unsafe in the building, but that the DOB is asking for unnecessary changes. “If it was just a matter of the walls, that’s different,” he said, “but they’re asking for so much. I’ve put up the white flag.”

The DOB confirmed that there are other outstanding zoning violations at the site, but could not provide specifics.

Walkoff said he would allow the graffiti artists to continue to use the building’s walls for their projects, which he has always specified cannot be pornographic, gratuitously violent or overtly political.

The building will be converted to a factory in the short term if a tenant is found, but Walkoff said he plans to eventually take down the entire structure and build high rise, luxury apartments in its place. He said there is the possibility of setting aside some space for the graffiti artists who currently paint over the block-long site, but this is unlikely to go over well with the artists who’ve turned this decrepit building into a cultural and tourist attraction.

Jonathan “Meres” Cohen, the founder and overall authority for Five Pointz, is on site every night painting and making plans with the other Five Pointz artists. He said he’s been spending up to 11 hours a day repainting the building which was covered with a fresh coat of paints as part of the façade repairs mandated by the DOB.

Cohen said he is in talks to get grants for the site and create a graffiti museum. “We want to do this right,” he said. “You need money, but there’s a lot of people who love this and they’re willing to help so we can continue our work, give tours and keep this place going.”

Walkoff said the property is worth well over $100 million and he does not see much support for this kind of museum. “I appreciate their art, but most people don’t,” Walkoff said. “[The graffiti artists] will continue to do their thing – it’s an addiction for them.”

Cohen was more optimistic. “We know that paper and money talk, so it’s just a matter of presenting the right option,” he said. “This is my dream. There was a point when the building wasn’t covered and people thought I was crazy and couldn’t do it, but it got done.

“I’ve been hearing the building is gonna come down for the last five, 10 years. Maybe it’ll come down next year, maybe not. Hopefully with the economy the way it is we’ve got a little more time.”

Meanwhile, new work is constantly appearing on the walls of Five Pointz while the Crane Street studios inside remain empty.

Reach Reporter Vladic Ravich at vravich@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 121.