The deal for the 89-unit buildings, owned by the Chissick family since the late 1960s, was for $58 million.
Since then, we've heard from residents about significant rent increases, evictions, and alleged apartment warehousing at the buildings.
As a result, residents here have advanced their efforts in recent months by forming the GoldinFinch Tenant Association. They are hosting a rally tomorrow afternoon (March 26) with the help of the Cooper Square Committee. (NYC Comptroller Brad Lander is also expected to be in attendance.)
Per a media advisory:
Tenants, advocates and elected officials will protest the actions of private equity firm Meadow Partners, which purchased two multifamily buildings in the East Village. Shortly after the purchase, Meadow Partners and their operating partner 60 Guilders/620 MGMT began aggressively displacing long-term tenants and hiking up rents.The rally will call for Albany to enact "Good Cause" legislation to prevent arbitrary evictions and unconscionable rent hikes, as well as city-level legislation to curb the apartment "warehousing" and "frankensteining" that Meadow and other landlords are practicing.Many tenants have lived in the neighborhood for decades and have strong ties to the community. The tenant association ("GoldinFinch Tenant Association") is named after housing advocate Frances Goldin [a longtime resident here] and art critic Charles Finch. Those residents, as well as other notable tenants who lived in the building, will also be honored at the rally.
Finch jumped to his death from his apartment on the 12th Street side last Aug. 24. He was 69.
As The New York Times reported:
Debby Lee Cohen, a neighbor who said she had known Mr. Finch for 40 years, said that besides his health, he might have been anxious about the future of the building, which had just been sold. He was a longtime resident who had a rent-controlled apartment.
The rally starts tomorrow outside 310 E. 12th St. at 1 p.m.
The tenant association also shared this building fact sheet (click on the image for a bigger view)...
It seems illegal for tenants to be coerced into moving out of their apartments without adequate time and monetary compensation.
ReplyDeleteI had a good friend in the mid-aughts who was forced to leave her rent stabilized apt in Dumbo that she been living in for over twenty years. The landlord sold it to a large property company who tore it down and made sleek modern condos going for 2 million each. She and the four other tenants who occupied their units had three months to vacate and were each offered somewhere between 40 to 50k.
There must be some type of legal assistance, protocol, and funds to support our affected neighbors through this transition if they are supposed to vacate.
I will be there at 1pm on Sunday to support my neighbors.
ReplyDeleteI am in a Croman-owned E.V. building. Croman is a notorious slumlord who owns over 100 buildings, many in the East Village. Tenants, most rent-stabilized, organized and took action. With the help of the NY Attorney General's office, he went to prison and had to pay a money settlement to tenants. Check out the "Stop Croman Coalition" website that tells about it and give lots of free info on all tenants rights at https://stopcromancoalition.org.
Regards, Slash
Sadly, rent control and stabilization are a double edged sword. The mom and pop owners, who have basically owned or subsidized a lot of the stores everyone is complaining are closing can not afford the rising property taxes and utilities while the tenants say "hey that's your problem" - then when they are forced to sell to the Corman's and other slum lords then they play the victim card. You can't have it both ways. And yes, I am a mom and pop landlord in the hood and I am on the verge of selling because the bodega in my building decided they didn't have to pay rent during the pandemic and since I am a mom and pop owner with her employees didn't qualify for any Covid relief and the bodega which obviously operates under the table didn't apply for Covid relief for rent either. Sadly, the problems in this hood are not solely landlord problems as most tenants like to posit but both parties are at fault. But of course tenants will never admit that they are part of the problem as well.
ReplyDeleteFormer resident here. Sucks to know this is happening to the few very nice people who live(d) there but there were also many nimby folk that had been there for years that didn’t take kindly to the newer renters propping up their building paying market rent.. anyway, I still miss Haxhi being my super and I do miss how clean the 12th street side was (no offense to Frank on 11th st. he just wasn’t as good and he knows that!) .. good luck with the apts!
ReplyDeleteWish NYC elected officials actually cared about the struggles of New Yorkers.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to be much more interested in funding services to migrants who were bused from Texas.