85 Bowery Tenants, Landlord Reach Agreement On Move-In Date

CHINATOWN, NY — The tenants and landlord of 85 Bowery have set a hard deadline for residents to move back into their homes after they were forced to evacuate more than five months ago.

Come Aug. 31 tenants will be able to move into their apartments, which will officially be recognized as rent stabilized, per the agreement. If construction is incomplete by the move-in date, landlord Joesph Betesh is required to pay a $150 per day fine per an apartment — the building has more than a dozen apartments, according to the agreement.

The agreement also requires Betesh to compensate tenants in the form of $25,000 per apartment in addition to a lump sum of $200,000 for personal property claims. The hard fought agreement is a step in the right direction for tenants across the city, one organizer said at a Monday rally celebrating the news.

"It was a ferocious battle," said David Tieeu, with the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side, who is one of the lead organizers behind the Bowery tenants. "The 83-85 Bowery tenants have laid the seeds. Our movement is just beginning to grow. People will not be afraid to stand up to slumlords."

The city evacuated the building after a January court-ordered inspection deemed the building uninhabitable. City engineers initially discovered that the building's main stairway was structurally unsound, but as repairs were made additional problems were discovered including unstable floor joists and asbestos that lengthened the timeline for repairs, according to the Department of Buildings.

Tenants were also in the midsts of a lawsuit with Betesh and Bowery 8385 LLC over whether the building's apartments are rent stabilized and repeatedly charged the landlord with scheming to push residents out of their homes to convert the units to market rate, which the Betsh denied.

It's a relief to have a move-in date after the lengthy ordeal, said one resident at Monday's rally.

"It's overwhelming to be able to finally go home," Jin Shuo, 38, said in cantonese through a translator, who has lived in the building with her husband, father and two young children for the last 10 years and is currently staying at a hotel. "Because we were able to come together, we made this happen."

The building's owners are also glad to put the matter to bed.

“As has been our shared goal from the beginning of this process, 85 Bowery will now be a safe, affordable, quality building for generations to come," read a joint statement from the 83-85 Bowery Tenants Association and Bowery 8385 LLC. "The tenants and the owner look forward to putting this unfortunate situation behind them and are glad that they were able to reach an agreement.”

Photos courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch