Bushwick Pandemic Party House Has Become Nightmare For Neighbors

For over a month now, officials have been cracking down on venues around the city which have been the site of large gatherings that break the COVID-19 safety guidelines. That's included underground parties in hidden restaurants, raves under the Kosciuszko Bridge, and indoor dance parties. But while restaurants and bars have gotten the bulk of the attention for breaking the rules, illicit house parties have become a problem as well.

A townhouse at 789 Bushwick Avenue has become a nightmare for just that reason, neighbors told Gothamist, with multiple parties being thrown every week over the last three months.

The parties started on June 5th, and are hosted on both weekends and weekdays, said Rachel Phillips, who lives in the building next door. "They have loud crowded parties that don’t start until 12 a.m. and last as late as 6 a.m., with 50-100 people and no social distancing, both inside and outside, including the backyard," Phillips told Gothamist. "There are speakers installed on the back of the house blasting incredibly loud music. The sidewalk becomes full of broken glass and all the garbage attracts rats."

According to neighbors, the building was a vacant row house that was recently sold after it underwent a gut renovation. "This luxury rental listing is located in a working-class residential neighborhood," Phillips said. "People have to sleep at night and go to work in the morning. There are children also trying to sleep. During the party the neighbors are subjected to loud thumping music, people going in and out, drunken screaming [and] violent fights."

Gina Bruno and Allessandra Moya began renting the top two floors, as well as the basement of the building, toward the start of the year, and launched their business 2 Girls 1 Loft (a.k.a. AG Houses), with a focus on film productions, photoshoots and events. "We designed our property specifically for creatives and entrepreneurs," they write on their website. "Whether you are launching a new brand, making content, producing a large project, or just need space to chill 789 Bushwick Ave is your refuge."

David LeFave and his boyfriend moved into the garden level floor last December, and initially had a cordial relationship with the two upstairs tenants. He said the two women talked about photo shoots and film productions, and "made it sound like a very professional and classy thing." In the spring, they acknowledged that things probably wouldn't happen for awhile due to the pandemic.

However, by the start of June, they had put the space on Airbnb and Peerspace and started renting it out to other people for parties and other gatherings. On Peerspace, the listing (now deleted) stated capacity at the space was for 100 people at $500/hour, with a minimum of four hours.

"They thought it would be dozens of people, but 50+ people came over and destroyed our property," said LeFave. "People were smoking inside of the apartment, and our apartment downstairs was filled with cigarette smoke. I jumped up in the middle of the night thinking our house was on fire." The party went until 7 a.m., and Moya later told him that there were at least $2,000 in damages to the property.

This was just the first of over a dozen parties that have taken place there in the weeks since, along with photo and film shoots, as well as the occasional daytime party. Moya and Bruno, who don't live at the space, were not present for most of the events, and according to one person, "can never be reached while the events are happening." Slowly, the entire neighborhood became infuriated. Multiple calls were made to 311, complaints were made to the Department Of Buildings, frustrated posts were made on social media, and the information was passed along to the Sheriff's Office.

"The first two weeks were totally out of control," said Phil Andrews, who lives in the garden apartment in a next door building. "One hundred people would come to a party, they would be partying loudly in backyard sometimes as late as 5 a.m." He said the worst event happened on July 11th, when multiple fights broke out at a party; it got bad enough that neighbors say that after she was reached and she saw what was happening, Bruno called the cops on the guests, who had rented the space through Airbnb.

"The police responded with several cars and about a dozen officers, and the young partygoers were kicked out of the building and dispersed on to the sidewalks and the streets," Phillips wrote in a letter sent to the local community board. "It created a tense and dangerous situation with the police for everyone in the neighborhood. The police incident lasted for hours. These two women knowingly rented to young people that were planning a big party, charged them $2,000 (fee plus security deposit), and then called the cops on them to end the party. [Bruno and Moya] took advantage of their guests by taking their money and then being the ones who had the privileged position to talk to the cops and tell them who to arrest."

Also during that incident, LeFave says that while some people left after cops arrived, he saw "easily 70 people come out" and continue partying on the street." Some people even tried to get into his apartment, and police officers "had to basically guard our house for a few hours after that."

After that incident, the listing was taken off of both Airbnb and Peerspace, but neighbors say the weekend parties and events have continued to happen. Airbnb confirmed that the listing was suspended. Booking is still available through the 2 Girls 1 Loft/AG Houses website.

LeFave, the downstairs neighbor, says he and others have tried to talk about the situation with Bruno and Moya, who have admitted that they've had problems at times controlling the amount of guests showing up. "There's no masks, no social distancing, these girls are telling us they're booking parties for 10-15 people and then over 50 people are showing up every time," he said. "We've tried to get through to them. I've said, I'm uncomfortable with the amount of people coming through, these are super disrespectful guests, I'm not comfortable with people partying at our sanity and safety."

Most recently, LeFave claims the women told him and his boyfriend "we're unhappy people and we just have to deal with it or move out."

When reached by email, Bruno told Gothamist that they did have problems with renting the place on Airbnb in June: "Unfortunately, we had two shitty experiences, both being younger groups lying about guest number," she said. "Since then we've gotten more conservative shifting towards film production/photoshoots for supplementary income." She added that more recently, "it’s been quiet and thankfully [compliant] with COVID regulations."

Omri Lahat, the owner of the property, told Gothamist he had no idea about that regular events were happening there: "I don't have any clue about these parties," he said. "I know they've been doing shoots, but no parties mentioned anywhere. I'm surprised to hear." He said that he's "definitely against" such events, adding, "Now that I have this information, I will approach the management company dealing with this to address this issue right away. I hope it's going to stop. And if not I'll interfere more."

Several of the neighbors tell Gothamist they feel totally exasperated with the situation and don't want it to get worse—hosting events with 50+ guests in defiance of COVID-19 guidelines is illegal, and hosting house parties where any amount of people aren't wearing masks and are coming in and out is also making them feel unsafe.

In the letter to the community board, they outlined how they feel: "These operators are exploiting the pandemic, possibly breaking zoning rules, noise ordinances and social distancing and exposing their guests to risks, and all the surrounding neighbors to this disruption. They have been operating for almost two months and show no signs of slowing down. This is an outrage, and we, the neighbors, are looking for our community representatives to take action to end this deplorable, disrespectful, dangerous situation."