Man, 13 Thames Street just can't catch a break. Last year, tenants of the building, which is located off the Morgan L stop in Brooklyn, claimed their landlord was trying to use a rowdy biker gang to push them out; now, they're suing him for trying to replace them with a bar and restaurant.
According to the suit, 13 Thames' landlord had the city order tenants to vacate in March 2011, then applied for a liquor license and proposed an eating and drinking establishment that would be located "in the tenants' living room." The suit was initially filed in January and refiled recently; it asks the landlord and the city to allow tenants back in their residences, as permitted by the loft-law. "My clients are entitled to possession of the building. Can you imagine if somebody put a restaurant in your house?" Thomas Hillgardner, the tenants' lawyer, told DNAinfo.
Hillgardner also represented tenants of 13 and 15 Thames last year, when they accused the landlord of hiring members of the Forbidden Ones Motorcycle Club to terrorize tenants in hopes of getting them to move out. The building was also raided in 2011 when cops arrested members of the Independent Anarchist Media (I AM) Collective, it houses an art collective and it's served as an Occupy Wall Street hub in the past; meanwhile, we're still trying to figure out if the building is in East Williamsburg or Bushwick, because that changes everything.
