I wonder if you caught the news story last night about a landlord up in Harlem who applied for several work permits for his 7 story apartment building at 305 West 150th Street.
The permits were approved by the N.Y.C. Department of Buildings. But little did DOB know that all the tenants were still living in the building. Of course, DOB expected it to be vacant during construction.
Now the Fire Department has vacated all the tenants, stating that the conditions inside are unsafe and could be catastrophic in case of fire. As a result, dozens of families have nowhere to live. Yes, short term, they have been put up in shelters, but long term?
The tenants claim that the landlord was preparing to turn the apartments into condo units. They accuse him of preparing the building for a quick conversion while they have to live in a construction zone. If that is true, we have reached a new low here in New York City. Collecting rent while upgrading the building for condos...its like
having your cake and eating it too "realty" style.
But most amazing of all is that the site has raked in 112 complaints from tenants. When DOB went to investigate them, did they not know what was happening inside?
This shows once more how dysfunctional this city agency is.
To see the Video Clip from the local news, click
Here
To check out the building's DOB record, click
Here
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3 comments:
Wow, that's really awful. I bet that wouldn't happen in other parts of the city...
It just shows that the whole Department of Buildings is not doing enough to control the construction sites in New York City. I bet this kind of stuff happens all over in various degrees.
The real story is the money behind this. The real owners of the property are a pair named Rodney Propp and Joe Tahl of Tahl Propp Equities. The Manhattan North company is just a shell to deflect bad press. They would likely spend $20M to renovate the buidling, but they stand to make $70M after the condo conversion. Well worth the price of a few displaced people who lack the clout or cash to fight back. The problem with the DOB is not that they don't attempt to work on behalf of residents of the city, it's that the fines they impose are so small compared to the money to be made that it's just considered a cost of doing business.
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