Bricked up windows on Dean St.

Apparently the landlord is trying to clear all the tenants out and sell the building, but the last tenant -- who has been there since the 60s -- does not want to move.

Word is her hot water was turned off as well. Its a pretty ugly scene and I have to wonder whether the Fire Dept might get involved seeing as having all the windows bricked up looks like a firefighting nightmare.

WhyFi wrote: What's preventing a sale with a tenant? New buyer wants the dirty work done for him/her?

A stand-off like this makes me wonder about the rights of owners... I'm sure that there are legit reasons for an owner to want to clear out a building - can they just give notice and refuse to renew a lease? Or do you need a good reason to clear someone out?

If the building has fewer than six apartments, it almost certainly isn't rent-stabilized. In that case, the landlord can simply refuse to renew a lease and the tenant must leave.

On the other hand, if it has six or more apartments, then it probably is rent stabilized. Being rent stabilized means that you can not evict the tenants and must renew the leases. Rent increases must conform to the rent board guidelines.

The loop hole (there's always a loop hole!) is that if only one unit is occupied (or fewer than 10% of the units, if it's a larger building), then the owner can apply to have the building removed from the rent stabilization program. Once that happens, the tenant will have to leave, eventually. It may be in this case eventually arrived sooner than the tenant hoped.

also, found this about the property:

http://devonnerealty.com/featured_ALPHA PRIME.html

the highlights:
- 8 apts
- all are 3BR
- asking $1.6M
- 6 apts are vacant; 2 are TBD
- "CONDO CONVERSION OPPORTUNITY!" (their emphasis)

$1.6 million for 8 3BR units is not bad, is it? You would pay that much for a 3-family Prospect Heights brownstone these days. What's wrong with it?

dailyheights wrote: $1.6 million for 8 3BR units is not bad, is it? You would pay that much for a 3-family Prospect Heights brownstone these days. What's wrong with it?

i don't know why the price is so "low", but i assume that it will need a gut renovation, so that probably lowers the price. also, it's directly across the street from a fire station and just down the block from the police station on 6th ave, so it will have its share of sirens 24/7.

and, there's the very real possibility of Ratner's Atlantic Yards almost literally next door (i think there's another identical building between it and the boundary of Atlantic Yards).

Today's NY Daily News had an article on this:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/456235p-383788c.html

It was on ABC yesterday night, a quick 30 second piece, stating the tenant is paying around $500 a month, and the landlord claiming to the brick-up of the windows was for safety.

Don't any of the local reporters do anything besides surf the local websites for story ideas any more? LAZY!

Carnivore wrote: Don't any of the local reporters do anything besides surf the local websites for story ideas any more? LAZY!

Hey, be nice. That building is pretty much a spectacle... I don't think reporters needed local blogs to point them in the direction of this story (especially reporters who actually to live next door to the place...)

Subject: looks like they're unbricking the windows

don't know why they're unbricking them, but they seemed a bit nervous that i was taking these pictures: