Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Early Addition
Photos via loveitmadly's flickr.
On Sunday Gowanus Lounge received frantic emails from tenants in a blocklong loft building at 475 Kent Avenue in South Williamsburg who were being suddenly tossed out into the frigid night by the FDNY; we went to the building on Monday morning and talked to some of the shell-shocked residents as they moved out, one of whom told us, “Sheila [Properties] owns the whole lot and I don’t want to speculate but there’s a reason they want to empty the whole lot.”
That vague speculation got a bit more specific today by way of Betsy Kelleher, who was part of group of tenants working to get the lofts legally converted into apartments. Many of the tenants held ten year leases set to expire in six months. Kelleher told the Times:
It was suspicious that the evacuation came weeks before a court decision that could have made the building rent-controlled. They want to clean everyone out and then convert them into expensive condos.
At this point, the official reason for the eviction is that the unauthorized matzo factory in the basement “held potentially explosive coal and wood-burning stoves and combustible grain silos.” Other problems included “blocked exits, cracked windows, and unauthorized alterations.” Oh, and the building also didn’t have a residential Certificate of Occupancy from the city. The city also shut down the neighboring building at 31 Division St., home to a Hasidic school and catering service.
Many of the residents, estimated to number around 200, were aware they were living there illegally, but they still made considerable investments in their living spaces over the past decade, installing kitchens, track lighting and other amenities. Far from a rat-infested squat, 475 Kent was home to many professionals paying, in some cases, $2,000 a month to Sheila Properties; one of the ousted tenants is Max Dickstein, the sports editor at amNew York. Dickstein told the Times, “This is a fantastic place. It’s hurtful to see it described as a flammable matzo factory instead of a community.”
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Really, is there any need for the question mark in the item's title?
Um, it may be hurtful, but perhaps it really IS a flammable matzo factory! Sorry it happened but would he rather have felt the wrath of a silo explosion down the line?
Funny how no one cared that it was "flammable" until it became "valuable."
Developers suck. Mayor Bling should prove he's not in the pocket of these soulless bloodsuckers and make the city do something... like expidite the C of O if they clear out the matzoh factory.
"Many of the residents, estimated to number around 200, were aware they were living there illegally, but they still made considerable investments in their living spaces over the past decade, installing kitchens, track lighting and other amenities."
Tough shit on them. Sorry folks, you made the decision to break the law. Oh, so now you want the law to change for you. Look, you had cheap rent for a lot of space. Your gig is up. Skeedaddle.
"Many of the residents, estimated to number around 200, were aware they were living there illegally, but they still made considerable investments in their living spaces over the past decade, installing kitchens, track lighting and other amenities."
Tough shit on them. Sorry folks, you made the decision to break the law. Oh, so now you want the law to change for you. Look, you had cheap rent for a lot of space. Your gig is up. Skeedaddle.
Heath LEDGER's DEAD Y'all! Gothamist finally has something newsworthy to post!
i have no comment on the illegality issue - i think all can agree with the facts that the apartments were not legal and that those living there were taking a chance, as tough as the situation is right now for these folks.
but the circumstances laid out here seem to point to the landlord enacting a backup plan to clear them out at his convenience now that the time is right.
In my childish little mind, I think if the tenants are losing their homes, then the owner should lose his building for opening it up for renters. Level the structure and make it public land, or a Chase bank/Starbucks/Duane Reade.
trace who called in the building violation and you'll find the culprit.
So why is it that a DOB inspector failed to shut it down when first reported more than 9 years ago or in 2005? Granted it wasn't smart for these people to be taken by surprise about this (or pay full rent), but this is a failure by more than just the tenants. They shouldn't be the only ones being punished.
I couldn't agree more 5:30. These people weren't squatters, it was the owner/rental company who initially broke the law by renting the spaces out to the tenants as dwelling places. And $2000 a month isn't cheap rent by no means. I say confiscate the building and prosecute the owner and/or "shiela" as a criminal, level it and turn it into a park.
So the developers took back land that was rightfully theirs after squatters were living on it. How can you feel bad for these people? They made a choice to take the risk and stay there. They knew what they were getting into. Let them find proper places to live like the rest of us.
Aww they put track lighting into the illegal apartments. It's like someone stealing a car, and fixing it up, and then saying its theirs just because they changed the tires. But they still stole the car!
nobody stole anything moron. Apples and oranges!
#12.
I don't understand your description of the paying tentants as "squatters". They're paying rent and from the reports from the tenants, they're paying market rates.
I feel bad for them. Times like these I wish a "Leon: The Professional" would make a showing.
No sympathy. It's the well-off being pushed out by the wealthy. Boo fucking hoo.
It's funny how everyone here is all knowing. It goes to show how you all sit in your ivory towers and judge the world only from your own point of views. Had this building actually lit, you would all be calling for the heads of Fire Department officials, who as you have said, "known about this for years". Now that the city is being proactive in protecting it's citizens, the verdict is that there is a conspiracy to turn the building into condos. All this said with a nice bit of anti-semitic banter. Very nice really.
You self serving assholes really make me sick. I am one of the responders who helped vacate the building. It is only through an act of God that this building did not go up in flames years ago killing everyone in it. As I walked through the makeshift apartments, which by the way, are obviously illegal (notice there is no sprinkler system, no CO2 detectors, no fire alarms, no egress, no fire escape, gas lines running throughout the living spaces)it is only now that you whine about being tossed. By the way, to all the residents that decided that overhead gaslines make a great place for storage, you truly are morons.
As you can tell by my name, I feel strongly about your self serving kind. Do you think it is only Jews who alter commercial space for illegal use? HA! As you have all said, there are a thousand buildings just like yours.
Let me put it plain and simple for you highly educated, successful people. If it looks like a factory, smells like a factory, sounds like a factory and runs like a factory, its not a house. It's a shame a city worker with 60 credits and a civil service title had to help you figure this out. Maybe you can ask some of your successful lawyer neighbors who pay $3000 a month for their apartment to explain it to you. Idiots.
are you from that Jewish EMS?
how's that free parking placard doing?
Actually, no Adolf, I'm not. I'm not Jewish at all. FYI, 'that Jewish EMS' does not charge any of their patients. I know, it's horrible.
I'll never understand renters... 24k pissed away every year.
So you're leasing a place that's not zoned as residential and then you get upset because the city is kicking you out? ZOMG GENTRIFICATION AND ANTISEMITISM!! *insert eyeroll here*