[Photo of 515 E. Fifth St. from May 4]
Landlord-developer Ben Shaoul now has yet another deadline to remove the illegal penthouse at 515 E. Fifth St., according to the building's tenants association.
As we've been seemingly cutting and pasting for years, the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) ruled in 2008 that Shaoul needed to remove the 6th and 7th floors here between Avenue A and Avenue B. However, his attorneys had requested that the city grant a zoning variance to "permit the constructed enlargement, minus the penthouse, to remain" here.
On Tuesday, there was another hearing on the matter … and as a rep for the tenants association told us, the BSA is giving Shaoul until the end of July to provide proof that the penthouse has been demolished … then the BSA will reopen hearings on the variances that Shaoul and Co. are requesting.
Last September, the BSA gave Shaoul 60 days to complete demolition … but that never happened.
Anyway, there is some demolition-related progress. As we pointed out, workers assembled a sidewalk bridge outside 515 on May 4. In addition, the city approved a permit to remove the penthouse on May 6. (There is also an approved permit on file to remove the sixth floor.)
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] 5 years later, another BSA hearing on illegal rooftop addition at 515 E. Fifth St.
Protest at 515 E. Fifth St. this morning, site of Ben Shaoul's illegal addition
The disappearing illegal penthouse of 514-516 E. 6th St.
Never-ending battle wages on over additional floors at 515 E. Fifth St.
Never-ending battle over additional floors at 515 E. Fifth St. promises to keep being never-ending
CB3 not into Ben Shaoul's zoning variance for 515 E. 5th St.
Another BSA hearing on Ben Shaoul's illegal rooftop addition; plus, rent 1 of the contested units!
BSA tells Ben Shaoul to remove the illegal penthouse on East 5th Street within 60 days
Sidewalk bridge arrives at 515 E. 5th St., site of Ben Shaoul's illegal penthouse conversion
4 comments:
The rich just ignore our laws, occasionally pay a fine and get to keep whatever they want.
Welcome to Shaoul/Croman/Icon/Kushner Land where rules don't apply. Unless you are a rent stabilized tenant or a long standing commercial tenant who adds to the fabric of the neighborhood.
Don't like it? Toughen up at the Equinox gym and know that Andrew Cuomo and Bill DeBlase-yo will get that minimum wage up to third world levels sometime around 2019 so you can afford bus fare out of town.
Ben Shaoul should be placed in a cell in Riker's Island and treated like the common criminal he is until the penthouse is demolished; once it's gone, he goes free. Actually, come to think of it. that should happen to any landlord with building violations, illegal construction, or harassment tendencies; betcha stuff would get torn down/repaired/stopped right quick.
Fines would work if they were equal to or greater than the gross income derived from renting all of the apartments in the entire building plus the value of any sale of the property. The problem is that they are set so low that it's profitable to pay the fine and keep on collecting the rent.
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