Brooklyn building illegally converted into shelter

From Kings County Politics:

The city announced today it removed all its resident clients from a four-story Bedford-Stuyvesant walk up illegally converted from a 14-unit apartment building to a 42-unit single room occupancy (SRO) shelter.

But the entire incident, in which the owner of the building at 529 Monroe Street appeared in some form of collusion with both the city and the non-profit organization that has a contract with the city to house homeless in an illegally converted building has local officials deeply concerned.

According to Community Board 3 District Manager Henry Butler residents have filed complaints about the building with CB3 as far back as the spring of 2017 when construction first began on the 4-story walk up.

Despite repeated complaints that the construction was illegal, the owners Monroe Lewis LLC, one of the shadowy landlords that operate out of 199 Lee Avenue in Williamsburg, was able to not only complete the illegal work, but secure a contract whereupon the city contracted with the non-profit Core Services to turn the site into a SRO homeless shelter.

The owners were able to do this even after the DOB slammed them with several fines including one for occupancy exceeding nearly three times the building’s Certificate of Occupancy and for altering plumbing without a permit.

Then, since September 2017 – around the same time the city passed legislation that would ramp up penalties as well as allow the Department of Buildings easier access to buildings suspected of illegal home conversions, the city began to illegally fill the building with tenants.

Despite the DOB leveling fines at the building’s owners for the illegal conversion, the HRA continued to house the homeless there, netting the landlord and Core over $40,000 a month in guaranteed city funding to split up as the city pays $1,047 per SRO unit.

Great report!

Greater Allen AME Church operating for 20 years without a C of O?

Well here's an interesting tidbit for ya...

The Greater Allen AME Cathedral and Conference Center (the church is also a major developer) in Jamaica has, according to online DOB records, been operating without a certificate of occupancy. They had a temporary one back in 1998 but it quickly expired.

The above list shows why they have yet to obtain a permanent C of O. (Yikes!)

This shows what they still need to file to become legit.

Filed in 1995, approved in 2017? At this rate they'll have their certificate sometime in 2050.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this church, it's run by former Congress Member Floyd Fake...er, Flake.

Cottage on roof has gotta go: DOB

From the NY Post:

Puchkoff, head of the real estate development firm DP Associates, converted the building from a warehouse into 14 luxury co-op apartments.

But when the Buildings Department inspector visited the rooftop last year, he determined that Puchkoff’s current certificate of occupancy does not allow the cabin or surrounding garden.

He was fined $1,200 and told to apply for a new certificate of occupancy.

A city administrative law judge tossed the fine in April, but then the Buildings Department had it reinstated on appeal in September.

So Puchkoff sued the agency to have his little slice of country comfort in the Big Apple declared legal.

His attorney, Richard Lobel, said the fine was based on a bogus complaint. He added that the DOB even signed off on the project twice, most recently in 1999.

I really wanted this to be legit because I think that's cool as hell, but there don't seem to be any permits issued for that structure.

Shore Towers condo units illegally converted into storage

From NBC 4:

A group of Astoria condominium owners says a cluster of apartments converted into unlawful storage units has turned their building into a fire trap. Chris Glorioso reports.

The Garaufis house: From classic to crappy

From the Times Ledger:

Work on the historic home formerly belonging to federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis is nearly complete with none of the original features of the classic 19th century structure remaining and complaints continuing to mount.

A modern brick structure with multiple entrances has risen in the place of the large, stately home that originally belonged to the Lawrence family, who owned an estate covering most of what is now Bayside and left a legacy which preservationists have attempted to maintain.

A neighborhood feud began in April 2016, led by Bonnie Skala Kiladitis, as the property was purchased and plans for renovation were posted on the city Dept. of Buildings site by the new owner with a permit requiring at least half the original structure be retained. Work on the four-story house, however, quickly took a turn for the extreme. Within days, the home had been reduced to the first floor.

The most recent violation on the property shows people have been living in the home without a certificate of occupancy for which the DOB cited them on Nov. 5.

Reporter captures food pantry debacle

Great job by the Queens Chronicle's Ryan Brady in following up on our original story:

A Queens Crap blog post from last month featured a complaint from an anonymous person about the crowds that come when the synagogue gives out food and block the entrance to a nearby community driveway.

Nisanov said that people who come to the food pantry are encouraged to avoid blocking the community driveway.

“Whenever there’s cars coming by, we always ask the people to move,” he said. “Even when there is no car coming by, we always tell people, ‘Please, it’s a driveway; we don’t want anyone to get hurt.’”

But when the Chronicle went to the location on Wednesday morning during the time of the food pantry’s operation, an entrance to the community driveway was blocked by a number of people waiting in line.

The rabbi added that the synagogue being in the area has benefited it in other ways.

“A house of worship and especially a synagogue in the neighborhood has raised the values of homes tremendously,” he said.

The Board of Standards and Appeals issued a variance for the building to be a synagogue with an accessory apartment for the rabbi in 2007 on the condition that it get a new certificate of occupancy reflecting the usage, according to the agency’s executive director, Ryan Singer. The certificate was necessary for the variance to legalize the building’s usage as a synagogue. The building did not have one by 2011, the deadline to do so under the conditional variance.

Be careful who you hire as an architect

From PIX11:

An architect from Queens was nowhere to be found after he promised to help a woman draft up new papers for her two-family home, so PIX11 stepped in.

Denise James said she was getting clobbered by taxes because the city considered her house a three family when it was really a two-family home. She needed an architect to draft new papers so she could get a new certificate of occupancy.

James found Alfred Mierzejewski, of Flushing, after reading good reviews of his services on the internet.

Mierzejewski said he wanted $10,000 to do the job. James gave him a $5,000 deposit in April 2015.

“Never hear from him till after three months. I keep trying to call him, text him, no response," James said.

When Mierzejewski finally did call her, he said he’d forgotten all about her. But somehow he still didn’t get around to completing the job. He gave James a handwritten note promising to refund her $5,000, but it never happened.

Residence illegally converted into synagogue

"This building's C of O is for residential use but illegally converted to be synagogue/place of worship. Worse, they now purchased the property next door 150-60 78th road, and performed major renovation work to connect the 2 buildings together, expanding the illegal usage.

Every Sunday, they hand out donated perishable food and vegetables and other types of groceries to people. I have nothing against charity, but they have crowds blocking the entrance of the common drive way and leaves rotting and unwanted food stuffs by the street tree, and stored the empty vegetable cartons outside the 150-60 garage overnight for pick up.

They did try to manage and clean up but these kind of activities does not belong to a residential neighborhood. There are tons of summonses and ECB violations but mostly were ignored and written off." - anonymous

Jamaica hotel without C of O used to house homeless

From DNA Info:

The city placed homeless families at a new hotel on Jamaica Avenue before the building before obtained its Certificate of Occupancy, documents posted on the Department of Building's website indicate.

The Department of Homeless Services confirmed to DNAinfo New York that it is currently renting rooms to house homeless families with children at the brand-new building at the intersection of Jamaica Avenue and 183rd Street which does not have any logo nor a reception area.

But neighbors, who said they were never informed that the building would be used to house the homeless, said that the city started placing families there before the building was even completed, they said.

From Cleanup Jamaica Queens:

More than just wrong, TOTALLY ILLEGAL. First, it is illegal for anyone to be in a building that does not have a certificate of occupancy and TOTALLY ILLEGAL to place homeless people in a hotel or any place that does not have a kitchen, yet the city and this awful mayor dumblasio is skirting all kind of legal issues. I am curious, how many of those people are from Jamaica, how many of those people are here in this country legally, how many of these people came from another state recently (NY is a right to shelter state, which is a BIG PROBLEM in itself), how many of these people pose a threat to others and the community due to a history of crime, drug/alcohol/mental healthy issues & violence, which we have seen a pattern of this in the majority of these places.

All this talk and all this money about investing in Jamaica and then more than 5 hotels have already been turned into homeless shelters and more hotels are being built. I was not aware that Jamaica, let alone Queens was a huge tourist attraction (WHICH IT IS NOT) that so many hotels (and small shady ones by shady owners) are being built.

Every time Jamaica attempts to make 1 step forward, the powers that be turn around and take three steps back.

Indeed.

Woman insists she is legal guardian for 25 kids

From the Queens Chronicle:

Shu-Jing Cao, the legal guardian of the group of children that lives at her home at 202-12 32 Ave. in Bayside, says they are well taken-care-of.

“They call me mother,” she said. “I treat them like my own children.”

When asked, Cao did not confirm or deny that 25 children are living at the house, an allegation raised by a civic activist concerned about conditions there and their impact on the neighborhood. But there are two other adults at the property, she said, who also look after the children.

The children attend schools in District 26, one of the best and most overcrowded districts in the entire city.

“They are innocent children,” she said. “They have a right to have education in America ... They’re safe.”

Although the city has not taken any legal action against the house, land use expert Paul Graziano doubts that Cao could be the legal guardian for all the kids living there if there actually are 25.

“No way she’s guardian of 25 kids,” Graziano said in an emailed statement. “The city wouldn’t allow it.”

The land use expert also says that it would not be legal for such a number of people to be living together in the same home.

“Three unrelated persons are allowed in each unit, children or otherwise,” he added. Although the building has two units according to its most recent Certificate of Occupancy, if 25 kids are there, more than three unrelated persons would have to be living in at least one unit. “Otherwise, they would have to get a specific Certificate of Occupancy — which they couldn’t get in a 1- or 2-family zone to begin with, like an R3X zone where this house is located — that would allow them to run a business or charity taking in multiple children for residency.”

Developer decides against Ridgewood beer beach

From the Queens Chronicle:

La Playa NYC has been shut down before it could even open.

According to the developer of 176 Woodward Ave. in Ridgewood, there will be no popup beach and beer garden operated by the Rockaway Brewing Co. at the site as planned.

"We pulled the plug on the plan," said David Schwartz, a principal at Slate Property Group, in a Tuesday phone interview. "It just became too much."

Schwartz said the hope was to have the venue open by early June, but securing a certificate of occupancy and a liquor license — all while a number of area residents voiced their opposition to the plan — meant La Playa NYC could not open until August at the latest.

"I don't think we had the time to address the people's concerns, there wasn't enough time to handle anything," he said. "It wasn't enough time to make it worthwhile. You can't just be open for August."

Have you all heard of Slate Property Group before? Let's just say that right now they have bigger things to worry about than running a hipster beach.

DOB transparency bill passed

Laurie Cumbo

From The Real Deal:

A new law requires the Department of Buildings to give city officials a heads up when a new building is proposed for a neighborhood.

Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a bill into law Monday ensuring that the department alert the City Council and Community Boards via email on a weekly basis after an application for a new building or for an alteration requiring a new certificate of occupancy for a building is filed. The bill also requires the department to email notices of rejected applications and also post all this information on its website every week.

Council member Laurie Cumbo, who co-sponsored the bill with Council member Fernando Cabrera, said that the law will increase transparency — a boon to neighborhoods like Downtown Brooklyn where new projects sprout up on a daily basis.

Meeks occupies mansion illegally

From the Daily News:

Rep. Gregory Meeks has been living in his 6,000-square-foot Queens mansion for nearly a decade — without city authorization.

He never got a required certificate of occupancy for the custom-built Hollis home, finished in late 2006.

A temporary certificate of occupancy, which he needed to get his mortgage, expired Jan. 4, 2007, and was never renewed, city records show.

The home has created controversy for Meeks.

He borrowed $624,000 to buy the $830,000 property and took out a $78,000 line of credit.

Then, in 2007, Meeks got a $40,000 “loan” from businessman Edul Ahmad that he said went to furnishing and other household needs. He made no payments on it and claimed to have lost the loan paperwork.

It was paid only in 2010 after the FBI began probing Ahmad, later indicted in a mortgage-fraud scheme.

The House Ethics Committee opened a probe after Meeks failed to report the loan. It dropped the matter after Ahmad refused to help.

To repay Ahmad, Meeks borrowed $60,000, taking out a mortgage with a company belonging to Democratic donor Dennis Mehiel.

Glendale yeshiva vacated by DOB

The illegally operating yeshiva at 74-10 88th Street has been issued a vacate order by the Department of Buildings.

Wow, who would have thought this would happen? The only explanation, in my opinion, is that there's an active DOI investigation.

CB5 says no to yeshiva dorm

From the Queens Courier:

After months of deliberation, Community Board 5 (CB 5) voted to recommend denying the Glendale yeshiva’s application for a zoning variance to expand the building during the monthly community board meeting on Wednesday night at Christ the King High School in Middle Village.

The board’s Land Use Committee met last month to hear the yeshiva’s proposal on the need for the school’s expansion from 360 dormitory beds, to 710 beds and the addition of a four-story building on the site located at 74-10 88th St.

Questions over the yeshiva’s original Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) raised community concerns with how the dorms were allowed to be placed in the building, which is in an M1-1 zone, where sleeping accommodations are not permitted.

Willets Point business owners got nothing but broken promises

Photo from WilletsPoint.org

From the Times Ledger:

A group of auto-shop owners in Willets Point led an unsuccessful hunger strike protesting the eviction.

The strike ended on June 5, just four days after almost a dozen auto shop owners swore off food. The strike was led by the coop’s president Marco Neira. Since then, Molina and others in the area are being barraged with tickets for working on cars on the street that they cannot pay for as the city increases pressure for the mechanics to leave the area.

In March, the city gave the group about $5.8 million to relocate their operations from Willets Point to the Hunts Point Section in the Bronx.

But according to Neira, the 17-auto repair shops were supposed to have been fully constructed in Hunts Point by July 1, but so far nothing has been built. According to the city Department of Buildings, construction has not started because the Sunrise Coop has not filled out the necessary paperwork to get things moving.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. at a meeting of editors for Community News Group, parent of the TimesLedger, said the Bronx could not proceed with the Hunts Point project until Queens completed the certificate of occupancy application and other requirements.

But none of this really matters – or makes any sense – for the dozens of auto shop owners who were forced to close down their businesses June 5.

The agreement specified that the EDC would pay $4.8 million and the Queens Development Group, the site developers, would provide $960,000. The Sunrise Co-op was expected to contribute $143,000 and the group would have to leave the site by June 1.

“The group got a raw deal,” Diaz said. “The city should have given them more resources—sizable subsidies.”

Now members of the Sunrise Coop will move to Hunts Point early next year, according to Neira but for the time being, the mechanics have nowhere to go nor do they have any place to store their hefty equipment.

Missing C of O on Hillside

Every once in a while, something is brought to my attention that surprises even me. Take for example, this new building at 85-32 130th Street.

This 4-story structure appears to be fully inhabited, but there is no current C of O for it. And there's a nice Class 1 violation that hasn't been paid.

So it's a Class 1 violation, meaning a high hazard, yet the place is not vacated. I wonder what DOB considers to be really dangerous.

What's going on at the LaGuardia Airport Hotel?

I got some info this weekend from a tipster who has proven accurate in the past. Connect the dots, if you will.

"SM ROUNDERS, LLC" was formed in January 2014.

In February 2014, STW LaGuardia LLC, located at the same address as SM Rounders, purchased the LaGuardia Airport Hotel for $20.5M.

In August 2014, STW applied for permits from the DOB to alter the building and change the C of O. Most noteworthy is that
1) they are trying to change the classification from "hotel" to "dormitory" and
2) the icing on the cake -

Dwelling Units:
Existing: 209
Proposed: 592

The plans were rejected by a plan examiner in October, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they get their ducks in a row and get approved for what looks very much like it may be an SRO.

The LaGuardia Airport Hotel's website is no longer active. It doesn't even say "coming soon".

Elected officials representing this property:

Julissa Ferreras
Jeffrion Aubry
Jose Peralta

and drumroll please......

Joseph Crowley

Club operated illegally without C of O

From DNA Info:

Bar and music venue Radio Bushwick was forced to cancel all of its upcoming CMJ shows after a judge slapped them with a temporary restraining order barring live shows — part of a legal dispute with the landlord that could put an end to all future concerts there.

The venue, at 22 Wyckoff Ave., had to cancel shows by about 40 bands since Oct. 10, with 20 additional gigs for CMJ either being canceled or moving to other venues. The move came after Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Lawrence Knipel ordered the venue to halt all of its shows immediately on Oct. 10 out of concern for the safety of their patrons, according to owners and court documents.

Knipel slapped the restraining order on the venue following a lawsuit filed by landlord Jamie Wiseman, of Cayuga Capital Management, who argued that the venue did not have proper fire alarms or sprinkler systems in place.

"Defendant's own website shows what appears to be hundreds of young people crowded around a performance stage," Judge Knipel wrote, "One shudders to contemplate the consequences of inadequate fire safety protection."

According to the Department of Buildings website, the venue does not have a Certificate of Occupancy, which is required to operate.

The building was never issued one because an alteration permit initiated in 2008 to convert the building from manufacturing to an eating and dining establishment was never completed, a DOB spokesman said.

The FDNY, which is responsible for monitoring sprinkler systems, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Liquor license excuse sounds like a huge crock of crap

From the Queens Courier:

An arts center in Ridgewood is applying for a liquor license. Okay, sounds like Williamsburg so far.

But while it wants to serve alcohol for its weekend music shows, the owners also want to make more money so that they can continue to offer free services on weekdays to the local community — especially the intellectually disabled.

“The basic logic behind this place is we’re here in the community and the community needs space so we give them space,” said Sam Hillmer, one of the owners of the venue Trans Pecos. “We believe that we can be the new model for new art spaces opening up in the community.”

Every Tuesday afternoon, The Downtown Electric band can be found practicing its music set. The group is made up of six intellectually disabled people who have been practicing in the space since Trans Pecos opened in December 2013.

Harris, who is a Certified Safety Professional, explains that some days the venue gets too hot, causing them to have to cut the band’s practice short. But with the liquor license, Hillmer said there will be enough money to install an air conditioner and make the venue more tolerable for AHRC and other community groups.

The venue also houses a record label, Northern Spy, and a coffee shop is in the process of being built in the front of the building.

Hillmer and the other owner, Justin Todd Patrick, applied for a liquor license with the State Liquor Authority last week and they are also seeking the approval of Community Board 5.

Ok, so in a nutshell, they're using the excuse that the kids need air conditioning in order to get their liquor license. Their temp C of O says restaurant and rehearsal studio. Here's what it looked like inside when the Silent Barn was illegally operating out of it.

[See last comment for update.]