THIRD STREET TENANTS ACCEPT LANDLORD BUY OUT
Five Year Legal Battle Against Landlord Seeking Mass Evictions to Create Private Mansion Ends
By Gabby Sloan

[November 11, 2008] Yesterday, the five year battle by residents of 47 East Third Street to stop their landlord from evicting them in order to convert the 15 unit building with two storefronts in which they reside into a private mansion came to an end.

As their trial against landlord Alistair Economakis was to begin in Manhattan Supreme Court, the remaining eight residents agreed to a buy-out deal offered by Economakis.

According to the residents' web site [<http://47e3.org/>]: "Today we settled the case due to an adverse set of circumstances. We felt we had no other choice. We are proud to have fought vigorously for our homes and all tenants' rights. We hope that our struggle will invigorate the battle in Albany to strengthen rent protection laws." As of this writing, the web site created by the landlord to counter the tenants' site [<http://economakis.com>] has nothing to say about the settlement.

According to SHADOW sources, under the terms of the buy-out, seven of the eight remaining residents are to receive $75,000 each. An elderly tenant will receive $175,000. It is not known whether the settlement includes reimbursement for the tenants' legal fees incurred over the past five years. As the paltry settlement amounts are not enough to cover rent in comparable apartments in the East Village for more than a few years, it is doubtful that any of the residents will be able to remain in the city for long.

If Mr. Economakis had prevailed in court against the tenants, the precedent set would have given any landlord in New York City extraordinary power to evict any number of residents in any building regardless of size or configuration under the pretext that the landlord would occupy the building for "personal use." 

Neighborhood housing activists have long suspected that the Economakis family is abusing the "Owner Occupancy" section of the New York State Rent Stabilization Law that allows a landlord, upon taking ownership of a rent-regulated building, to take "one or more dwelling units" for "personal use." As reported by the SHADOW, the law only requires that a landlord intends "in good faith" to occupy the apartment(s) in question for three years in order to make the "personal use" claim legal. After that time, there is nothing to stop the Economakises from renting out or even flipping all or part of 47 East Third Street. Considering that the Economakis family owns and/or controls more than 50 buildings in New York City, it is believed that they are evicting the residents of 47 East Third Street for personal gain, not "personal use."

Since the tenants have agreed to abandon their legal battle against Alistair Economakis, the ability of landlords to engage in large scale evictions remains to be tested in court.

[For more on the plight of the residents of 47 East Third Street, as reported by the SHADOW, see <http://shadowpress.org/third_st_tenants.52.htm> and  <http://shadowpress.org/third_st_tenants.53.htm>. The 47 East Third Street tenants plan to remove their web site on November 15.]