Williamsburg tenants demand city help them return to lofts after 3-year lockout

Levin: ‘The city, shame on you. The owners of this building, double shame on you’

February 13, 2018 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Councilmember Stephen Levin, left, asks residents of 79 Lorimer St. to raise their hands at a press conference Tuesday morning. The sign labeled S6828 refers to Senate bill S6828, which would amend the loft laws. Photo by Mary Frost

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“It’s astounding to me that the city can throw some kids in Rikers for the weekend for jumping a turnstile but can’t stop a landlord who owes them half a million dollars in fines.”

That’s the outraged cry of Josh Steinbauer, a tenant who says landlord Bushburg Properties, operated by Jacob Hoffman and other members of the Hoffman family, destroyed the lives and property of close to two dozen tenants in an apparent attempt to empty his South Williamsburg loft building.

Creative businesses and artists who lived and worked at 79 Lorimer St. have been locked out of their lofts for more than three years while their possessions, equipment and livelihoods have been looted and trashed.

With the building’s door locked, the only persons with access to the tenants’ lofts are the landlord and his employees.

Tenants at the building included a formerly thriving video production company, recording studios, a furniture design shop and numerous arts-related businesses. Now they and their employees are struggling to survive.

Loft law advocates and local officials are demanding that the city enforce a court ruling establishing the residents as protected tenants under the city’s loft law, and force the landlord to bring the property up to code so they can move back in. The city has neglected to collect fines of more than a half million dollars owed by Bushburg Properties.

Tenants say Bushburg removed all of the sprinkler pipes from the building in 2014. Following multiple visits from the Department of Buildings (DOB), the live/work space was deemed not up to code and the tenants were vacated with only 24-hour notice.

Destroyed Possessions

When Steinbauer and roommate Arthur Purvis were given two hours to access their loft last month, they discovered that the doors to their rooms were smashed in, valuable tools and equipment stolen, and windows smashed or propped open.

A thick layer of pigeon droppings covered every surface — furniture, musical instruments, computers, artwork. Dead and decaying pigeons lay smashed on the floor, with their feathers strewn about the room. Seat cushions were scattered across the floor. Vines were growing in through the windows.

Steinbauer had a video business on the sixth floor. “It was a space for artists,” he told the Brooklyn Eagle. “They broke every single lock and propped the windows open. Everything is covered in pigeon excrement.”

Steinbauer said he and his roommates caught the building’s super looting his apartment. “The police would not file a report because they said, ‘Oh, it’s a Housing Court issue now, it’s not our jurisdiction anymore.’”

Purvis, who runs a music label, said he and other tenants couldn’t commit to other apartments because “we still live here.”

Aaron Scaturro, who lived on the second floor, is a furniture maker. Since being locked out of his workspace, he has lost business and clients, he told the Eagle.

“I had relationships with showrooms, and unfortunately you can’t really promote or maintain those relationships unless you keep things going,” he said.

“I’m going to keep going no matter what happens,” Scaturro added. “I’ve tried to maintain something along this process, but the situation has become more precarious than ever and this was definitely an asset I had to my career and my life … There’s no denying my career’s taken a hit.”

Levin: Shame on You

Councilmember Stephen Levin (D-Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Williamsburg) told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday, “Picture your apartment with your living room, your couch, kitchen, your food and your dinner plates … picture your heirlooms, things that you care about. Now imagine, with 24-hours-notice, being told to leave that apartment, and you’re not able to return for three 1/2 years. And when you do return, your entire apartment is covered in bird excrement … And then imagine going to the city to assert your legal rights and being told, ‘Eh, go to that guy. Go to that guy. It’s that guy’s responsibility.”

Levin added, “The city, shame on you. The owners of this building, double shame on you for doing what you have done. It is unconscionable — unconscionable — that in this city we can allow tenants’ rights to just be trampled.”

Attorney Michael P. Kozek, of Ween and Kozek, represents the vacated residents.

“We have tried at various levels of the city to get the city to do something in response to help them. The city has basically done nothing. There have been fines levied against the landlord. The city has basically said, ‘We can’t take any enforcement action.’ They haven’t sought to enforce any of the fines that have been imposed on the landlord. They’ve given the landlord no incentive to do any of the work, which is relatively simple work to get these tenants back in — gas, plumbing and some sprinkler work. None of that’s happened. The landlord forced these tenants to go through years-long litigation to get protection under the loft that they are entitled to.”

Adding a complication, the city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) overruled the judges’ ruling for some of the tenants, placing them in a tug-of-war between the administrative law judges who ruled in their favor and DOB — two city agencies.

NYC Loft Tenants, a volunteer organization, said there were many buildings in the city in a similar situation. The group is pushing the state Senate to pass Senate bill S6828, which would amend the loft laws.

“We’re getting fed up. The city is aiding and abetting landlords,” said group representative Eve Sussman.

The Eagle has reached out to the landlord for comment, but received no response by press time. Check back for updates.