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.”
