[EVG photo from August 2014]
Over on Avenue B and East Fifth Street, Ben Shaoul's Bloom 62's roof deck had been attracting attention for its parties.
However, effective immediately, the party's over for now atop the former Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, which Shaoul bought and converted into high-end rentals.
A tipster shared a 10-page memo dated yesterday to the building's residents.
As you are aware, we have made several attempts to enforce the roof rules for the safety of all residents and their guests.
The roof is intended to be used and enjoyed by all residents in this building; however that is no longer the case. As a result of excessive parties, most of which have gone on well after permitted hours, the amenity space has been destroyed – and regrettably this has occurred too many occasions.
The most recent incident left the amenity space looted: alcoholic beverages, beer bottles, graffiti on the ledge, items thrown from our roof over to neighboring rooftops and broken furniture. This is simply unacceptable and will no longer be tolerated.
We regret to inform you that due to the events that have transpired on the roof, the Landlord is CLOSING the roof effective immediately. Access will be limited to emergency use. Anyone found on the roof in a non-emergency related capacity will be considered trespassing and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Once repairs have been made a revised roof schedule will be circulated.
However, at this time we are not providing residents with a new opening date. We understand this might be upsetting to those of you who have not participated in the destruction of private property — however it is our responsibility as a Landlord to ensure the use and enjoyment of every resident in this building, the safety of all its residents and our desire to respect our neighbors and the community in which we live.
We hope that this pause will encourage those residents and their guest(s) to reconsider their actions and remember that they are living in a community of fellow residents. We are optimistic that once the roof reopens, residents will treat this very special amenity with respect and help promote common courtesy by following the guidelines set forth by the Landlord.
The memo included several photos. (Per the memo: "We have included photos of the most recent incident below — they are incredibly telling and disheartening.")
The building is currently on the market for $80 million.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Local politicians reach out to Ben Shaoul as re-sale of the Cabrini Nursing Center seems likely
More details on Cabrini's closing announcement
Have you heard the rooftop parties at Ben Shaoul's Bloom 62? (52 comments)
62 comments:
Boo hoo, Shaoul created this mess, what did he think this space would be used for, a quiet game of cards with the sober tenants? The poor suckers paying all that rent thinking they could take advantage of an outdoor space to sit under the stars sipping a glass of wine have to put up with a bunch of privileged animals. I just hope this is a trend and more landlords start shutting down roof raves.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOO…………………………………………
Looks like Phi Delta Dad on a good nite do any of them on the tables live there
ICON REALTY ARE YOU READING THIS????????????????
'Look Ma! I'm in my 8th year of college!'
Ahhhh yes, the "selfie-stick" making its appearance...symbolism at its best.
Backyard and rooftop parties still on the go at Icon's 205 Ave A building. Loud and frequent. More rooftops around the East Village in use with no oversight. Seems every new or renovated building provides rooftop party access. City laws behind the times in noise issues make it hard to control the plague.
I'm surprised they don't have a security guard up there considering how juvenile the crowd is. Too bad these kids don't know how to act they they belong in a city. Leave your Solo cup lifestyle back in the burbs.
Wah, Wah, hiring a roof attendant or two to collect garbage could easily solve this problem. Unfortunately, you can't stop all the whining from losers with no friends and are afraid to have a good time..
"Solo cup lifestyle": too perfect!
Icon has just built a large (covers the entire roof) and extremely illegal party deck on top of 329 East 10th Street, a landmarked building on a landmarked block, which they've been gut-rehabbing for months. I spent weeks in communication with Landmarks, which confirmed they issued a violation for illegal construction, but that's the extent of their powers and it hasn't slowed Icon down one bit. I've also made a number of 311 calls to the DOB, based on the permits issued to the LLC versus the actual amount of work being done (permits say "minimal interior work and painting", actuality, took it down to the brick and rebuilt everything), and also on the illegal deck (which is actually visible from the street),but they could not care less,and have not responded. This building is across the garden from me, and I have no doubt that once it opens, there go my (relatively) quiet summers. Unbelievable that these bastards will get away with this.
When I moved to the East Village 2 years ago, before I knew it was full of idiotic frat boys, we went to look at this building. As soon as we saw there were no baths and no ovens it was clear it was going to be a glorified dorm. So glad we didn't move in.
check out north west corner of 10th street and first avenue.
another rooftop treasure i wish somebody would steal.
his is a perfect case of "if you want to party outside move to the suburbs".
please please please
Rooftop Rager!!!!
Laughing at 8:37 thinking a bunch of trashy fraternity drunks are real friends and that wastedly screaming on a rooftop is a good time. Whatever delusions get you through the day, brother.
8:37 is a riot. So obviously one of "them". Rooftop attendant to collect garbage?! You so don't get it on so many levels that it's beyond pathetic. Go back to the dorms.
The frat idiots who are transient and do not make this neighborhood their "home", think that other residents are anti-fun. No, we love having fun but follow old school respect and knowing our place. We don't woo through the night. We're not dumb and cunty and doing dumb college suburb dorm shit. That is the difference. Assimilate, bitches.
Jeez, if Ben Shaoul cannot take a little noise and partying, he should move his real estate holdings to the suburbs. This is the East Village, bro!
Ben Shaoul really outdid himself with this doozy: HAAAAAA!!!!!!
"it is our responsibility as a Landlord to ensure the use and enjoyment of every resident in this building, the safety of all its residents and our desire to respect our neighbors and the community in which we live."
Anony 11.11 AM. The classic rube, fly-over state, Yunnie "move to the surburbs" line. He even uses the word "Bro". This has got to be a put on. Right? For the love of God, Montresor!
Good. I'm sure they're just doing it out of fear for liability if some drunk idiot falls off the roof, but better late than never. Sometimes we'd hear those parties on the SE corner of A and 6th, right by ConEd. Can't begin to imagine how awful it must have been closer to B & 5th, although my area has its own share of backyard party woos, too.
11:11 is trolling. Or being fecitious. Or, I hope he/she is.
@8:37am: Behaving like a grownup could easily solve this problem!
PS: As an additional amenity, maybe Shaoul, Icon, etc. could set aside space in their buildings for the AA meetings that some of their renters desperately need.
The memo says the roof was "looted." Looted? What was looted? Trashed is more like it. These Fridiots love to trash things. Did he think they would only play beer pong and destroy his tables in the middle of the street at 3AM? Welcome to the party.
Note to Ben Shaoul and all the other clueless landlords destroying this city's quality of life with these new rude tenants and these intrusive amenities: When you build a roof rage deck, don't act surprised when people go up there and actually have a roof rage.
What did they expect these residents to do up there, contemplate their navels? Meditate? Hold hands with their nannies? These people threw things down onto other buildings and they are not being prosecuted or evicted?
It's time to shut down these Rec Roofs. Remember the roof rage on 2nd Ave. where some guy jumped on the staircase landing and it collapsed, trapping everyone else on the roof? Remember the student who got high on drugs and jumped off the roof at NYU dorm on 3rd Ave? Or the other NYU student who got drunk at the NYU dorm on Lafayette, went up on the roof, fell into a crack between the buildings and was stuck in there for days?
Get rid of the decks, they are a danger to us all. Put a rec room in the basement with a pool table, a keg-er-ator and a pinball machine, at least people won't have to listen to them screaming all night or tragically splattering on the pavement.
yug a muppie
Woooooooooooo!!!!!
@8:37 Yes, hiring a roof attendant to BABY SIT and bunch of 20 SOMETHINGS would solve the problem! You all need to come to the realization you're not 14 year olds living with your parents on a cul de sac. You're living in New York City among grown-ups now. Grow the fuck up.
Check this action out: over at 535 East 11th near Avenue C, another Shaoul building I believe, the residents, or possibly non-residents and not even people who live in the building or even the neighborhood, like to "rent" out the empty penthouse apartment which has a large balcony at the top of the building and throw a "rager". I believe they're paying the doorman a couple of hundred bucks or something, then publicize to all their friends, most of whom look underage, that the can pay $20 bucks a head to pre-game at the place for about 2 hours before the cops shut down. Most likely whoever's throwing this party is using it to make rent money or whatever. Again, the average time for the cops to show up is about 2 hours, at which point you can watch a parade of 150+ students exit the building (and then hang around the front of the building for another 45 minutes). Allow me to assure you that the noise-level coming out of the building and off the balcony makes makes Friday and Saturday nights into a complete PURE. FUCKING. HELL. Frant-songs woo-hooing, chants of "WE WANT PUSSY!", firecrackers set off *in* the apartment, etc - you get the idea. And the guys throwing these parties know that somebody's going to have to get arrested, so one of them decides in advance to "take the fall." It's just business for these kids - it's all so easy - but one that's makes life hell for everyone around them. I know from living across the street what it's like, but I can't imagine what it's like inside those building when this is happening.
Shaoul - good for you for taking the steps here to bring down the noise level at your Bloom building, but it needs to go further. Your building, your responsibility.
from my nearby roof deck, from what i can tell, that roof was a huge sausage fest, and they had a horrible taste in music. imo the building should have screened tenants better and not have allowed so many frat bros in...
I'm guilty of throwing "rooftop ragers" for the better part of 3 years in the neighborhood. Once we had over 200 people for the 4th of July.
Complaints? Zero
NYPD? Never
Injuries? One, and I paid her medical expenses.
Fires? Zero
We kept it classy. We had huge bags for all the bottles and gave them to the Chinese ladies. We had fun but never were really all that loud, above the normal din of conversation. More of a cocktail party vibe, really. No "whoo-hoos" and the music was from a small boombox, not a huge PA system. I never ever had to kick anyone out.
It can be done so that you can fun and not drive your neighbors crazy. With respect to these other partiers, as they say on the Internet: "You're doing it wrong."
P.S. I love Stella!
These tenants are paying for the whole package, this "rooftop amenity" included. Now that the amenity has been taken from them they are entitled to a rent reduction.
Come on Shaoulians! There must be some pre-law students among you who would like the experience of dealing with a landlord-tenant issue! Make it into a project with one of your law school professors!
Good Riddance! Lets bring some "class" back to 5th Street. We don't need any more dangerous parties filled with frat-boys above our heads. I think the owners and landlords are waking up to the fact that these parties pose serious dangers to the people who just want to live in peace in the surrounding neighborhood and that eventually someone will get seriously injured and possibly even sue them which would put an inconvenient cog in their cash-flow.
@anon 8:37
"Hiring a roof attendant or two to collect garbage could easily solve this problem. Unfortunately, you can't stop all the whining from losers with no friends and are afraid to have a good time.."
How about making a U-turn and finding another place…a far AWAY place, for your millennial yuppie parties…that would easily solve the problem as well.
Yo bro: If the simple solution is to hire someone to clean up, why hadn't that been arranged beforehand?
There is a new roof deck approved for 109 St Marks Place.
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobsQueryByNumberServlet?requestid=2&passjobnumber=122391946&passdocnumber=01
No landlord is cool with property damage. Parentally funded or not. Expect more security cameras and smack downs bros. There's a bunch of people right behind you waiting for those apartments.
Send Bro and Brah the bills for cleaning and damage, at their new apartment because they'll no doubt have been evicted. Babies.
I don't know what kind of building the previous poster who hosted 200 people on the roof lives in, but I can tell you that my roof would never be able to support that much weight. A few people were up there recently and an old pipe fell through the ceiling of one of the top floor apartments. A lot of the buildings in the neighborhood are old tenements, and the roofs can't handle all that weight.
Perfectly. The building is a 19th Century tenement. You can park a jet on these things with no problem. Over-engineered and over-constructed; that's why they are still around today.
I wonder is Shawn G. Chittle has ever lived in a 100 year plus tenement. I wonder, too, if he is a structural engineer and is speaking with that knowledge about the soundness of tenements. It is never a good idea to generalize, perhaps a few EV residents are living in 100+ year-old tenements that are safe--in good shape. Please Mr. Chittle document your statements!!
80 Million does that include the beer pong kids? My buddy worked at the old folks home in the kitchen, was distraught when he lost his job of over 10 years. He lived in the east village his entire life has 4 kids will have to move. I`ve moved was at 4th and b for over a decade and don't miss the disrespectful newbies. I don't see it getting better all my artist/musician/ interesting great people have had to leave. Fridays and Saturdays just get beyond my tolerance and I have a lot of tolerance. I used to be a bouncer in the neighborhood = glorified babysitting. I hope a balance happens but with the NYU expansion unlikely. Ive seen perfectly good 1 bedrooms be turned into 3 bedroom dorm style rooms. Somebody is willing to pay the $3500. Oh well change is the only constant seldom these days for the good. I`m going for a sunset surf >no matter where you go there you are Neil Sedaka.
Not so fast, Shawn Chittle! I live in a 150+ year old building and while it's built solidly, it sure as hell would not structurally withstand a roof deck being added, and that is per our engineer's professional opinion. So don't be quick to generalize.
My fellow East Villagers, as you can see I'm concerned. Yes, I, too, make rules, and hopefully we'll soon have these unnamed tenants in line. (We are thinking of across-the-board rent increases as well as other surcharges.) In fact, we reached out to a few of the former Cabrini nursing staff to help in sedating these belligerents since they have years of experience working with advanced stages of dementia and ennui.
So I'm optimistic we'll have this unruly demographics under control, if not financially drained.
-- Ben "The Sledgehammer" Shaoul
@ Shawn C - are you trying to convince us somehow that you are cool by telling us all this story? Throwing a party on a roof for 200 people that doesn't have an approved DOB roof-deck with railings etch., isn't cool at all, especially one that you claim resulted in someone getting injured enough that you paid her medical bills? Your lucky someone didn't get really hurt and sue you. It's one thing for a couple of people to hang on a roof and watch fireworks or catch some sun, it is another to have 200 people on a tenement roof. Many people I know in these old tenements have leaks into their apartments from the roof, because they are wood roofs with tar paper and can easily be punctured by heavy foot traffic so . . . the roofs of tenements are not built for parties.
Mr. Chittle, I live in one of the better EV tenements (corner building, solidly built, wide stairwells, etc.) and I cringe every time one of my asshole newb neighbors violently slams a door (which is about 10x a day from these raised-in-a-barn morons), waiting for light fixtures to crash from the ceiling and ever more cracks to show up in the walls. Please don't host 200 people at a time on your roof and for god's sake don't land a damn plane up there. A four-story building in Bed-Stuy collapsed today and that building was probably considered "over-engineered and over-constructed" too.
@Gojira - I would really encourage you to contact Stetzer - I have found her to be quite helpful with DOB stuff. Perhaps not routine stuff, but something as serious as what you describe, especially when the culprit is Icon. I would also suggest contacting the East Village Community Coalition. They deal with landmarks all the time and have worked in partnership with GVSHP and CB 3 to stop these violations of landmarking in several cases. Try e-mailing Sara Romanoski - director@evcc.org.
Shawn Chittle - are you a licensed pilot? How do you know you can land a jet on the roof safely?
"All they have to do is a hire roof attendant or two to collect garbage could easily solve this problem." How about the auditory garbage, i.e noise? Or the partygoers' attitudes, which are garbage. Or the obnoxiousness, also garbage. Wah, Wah, Wah, they're taking away my playground, wah, wah, wah. Why? Why? I want my mommy and daddy. Wah, wah, wah. My daddy owns half of f-ck--g Manhattan. Wah, wah, wah. What do you mean you don't have almond milk? Wah, wah, wah.
HAHAHAHAHAHA Fucking children!!!!! Perhaps some will learn there might be repercussions for their actions.
But probably not.
@Anon.9:56 - THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Somehow everyone seems to believe that this will be the end of the roof parties because of a letter? It might quiet down for a couple of weeks but then they will be back, but without all that nice furniture.
And no, the 115 year-old-never-renovated tenement roofs are not strong enough to regularly hold that many people, especially without a deck or reinforcement. It may not fall through right away, but the integrity of the joints are certainly compromised, causing leaks and other more hidden damage. It's clear when you are on the top floor and feel the room shake when some idiot starts jumping around, because being outside somehow makes people hop and stomp. I become crazy roof patrol lady when people walk on my head and always ask them to move to the other side. Only a couple of times have I had pushback, but we worked it out. If the roof is going to collapse it's not going to be on me if I can help it. The interesting thing is that 20 years ago I would have been too scared to confront someone on the roof in the middle of the night, because it surely wouldn't have been drunken college students. Maybe I should be scared, but with age brings fearlessness. I hope my successor continues to keep the roof safe in my absence, because if it fails the lease will be forever gone when the apartment is unhabitable.
Shawn G. Chittle said...
Perfectly. The building is a 19th Century tenement. You can park a jet on these things with no problem. Over-engineered and over-constructed; that's why they are still around today.
I beg to differ; these roofs are asphalt and kind of soft. Ours gets puddles in the hollows when it rains.
I live on the 6th floor of my building—built in 1895—and if there are any suspicious noises over my head, I go up and complain and threaten to call the police—for what good that will do. (As a matter of fact, I use the 311 App, available for iPhone, iPad, and Android. There have been a few parties in the past few months, and even if there were no danger, there's noise until all hours.
I sleep in a loft bed, so when they're partying over my head, they're only three feet or so away; it would really suck if they were to fall through the roof and end up in bed with me.
Just wait until Shaoul's development on East Houston and Orchard Street is built. Ten stories, 113, 246 square feet, and 83 apartments chockfull of loud entitled idiots. I lived on the ground floor in a building on E. 3rd Street for more than twenty five years. At least the junkies who used to shoot up in the back yard were quiet and nodded out when they got high instead of Woo-Wooing till dawn. The world was a better
place before Woo-Woo came into existence. The term brings nothing but Woe-Woe to people who are subjected to creatures who find it the only way they can express their feelings. What does Woo-Woo mean anyway ; when and why did it come into existence?
Dear Tenants,
Due to complaints about our removing the rooftop party area amenity we are immediately providing a replacement amenity so that we can keep charging you the rent that you agreed to after we promised that you could party all night on the roof.
As of tomorrow morning the rooftop will be used to land jets. You will no longer have to travel all the way to Kennedy or LaGuardia for your Barbados weekend getaways. Just tell your pilot not to bounce too much on landing because we have some very snotty neighbors who keep complaining about every little noise coming from the building.
Please cancel your planned rent strike. Please. I'm sorry.
Love & kisses,
Benny
@gojira @anon 9:56 You can reach me at sara (at) evccnyc (dot) org.
Shawn Chittle I have a job for you!
Please...Shawn Chittle, if that is his real name, does not know how to throw a party. I once had 20,000 people AND a 747 and 2 dozen bowling balls just for the hell of it on my roof top AT ONE TIME; not like this 200 people who probably filtered in and out over the course of a party. It was that crummy old building that everyone whines about on this site that was built by the Dutch that they tore down a few years ago. They knew how to engineer shit, they basically took a country that was below sea level and made it habitable, they were the first country ever to legalize weed, even before Colorado jumped on the band wagon and they brew heineken beer so they definitely know how to make a building withstand a little party. It's what the Dutch did when they were not exploiting their African colonies. If the city didn't let that building be tore down, it would still be standing today, despite my rager. So there. Suckers.
I once replicated Studio 54 on my roof, complete with coked out horses! Top that!
@ANON 2:43
There is no topping that.
I got shit faced once & fell off a bar stool with only five people around. Didn't need any of that fancy airplane/horsey/bowling ball shit so there.
These comments are hilarious, side-splittingly hilarious. I had no idea so many EVG commenters were this nutty.
1. Who would make up a name like Shawn Chittle? My parents, that's who! And I am not cool at all. Trust me.
2. I am a pilot, actually. I used to fly the Boeing 777 and 767-400. I have yet to land or park any of my aircraft on a tenement, but I once landed an aircraft in Lake Union in Seattle, so who knows? Keep looking up!
3. Not a single person bothered to ask how large the rooftops in question were, which is the only question you need to ask to ascertain whether or not 200 people could be supported at once (the answer is yes in every instance). Also, like all buildings in NYC, not all are created equally.
4. I had several structural engineers over to several of the parties in question. We became friends during the 9/11 investigation. The quote that the tenements are "over-engineered and over-constructed" came from them actually. As we saw on 9/11 and recently on 2nd Avenue, fire is the real enemy of buildings; not people standing on them.
5. I take this neighborhood (my home) and the people in it (my friends and neighbors) very seriously, and am sorry that you folks took a series of events that you couldn’t possibly know anything about and give me your rather misinformed and uneducated opinion on. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But that’s the beauty of the internet: anonymity for those that choose it and can say whatever they want with no repercussions.
With that, I’m heading to a roof party on East 9th Street and Avenue C which you won’t hear about because - like the original point of my post - was that you can have these events in the East Village and still be respectful, a respect that many of you didn't bother to show me.
Have a good one!
:-)
Ah where would the East Village be without the current crop of young Millennial douchebags living it large on mommy and daddy's dime? Well, they've done it now.
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