Our tipline has been abuzz this morning with rumors that all tenants were evacuated yesterday from rental building 1182 Broadway. We checked with the Department of Buildings—which has one "work without permit" violation posted for the property—to get the full story. And that is? A DOB spokesperson tells us the agency investigated after anonymous complaints and found that the property was illegally converted from a 16-floor manufacturing building into residential apartments. The building had no fire sprinklers, no secondary exit, and only one stairwell, which could trap tenants in the building in the event of a fire, so the DOB slapped owner Mocal Enterprises with violations for converting the building without a permit and for occupancy contrary to DOB regulations. According to DOB, tenants were evacuated with the aid of city agencies and the Red Cross. So who called in the complaint? That's the big question. The grungy neighborhood (WhoDi to us) has been branded the "next big thing" thanks to a crop of new luxury boutique hotels opening in the area. The hipsterest of them all, the Ace Hotel, is right next door.
We hunted up a few old listings for the building, where rents appear to have ranged from $2,900 to $6,000. According to one description, here's what that money would have gotten you:
Zoned as a live-work space, this renovated loft offers an industrial vision of New York that is fast disappearing...Featuring free laundry on every floor and bathrooms big enough to fit a mini-Cooper in, these apartments also offer massive closets and giant pewter windows. If you are looking for Zen gardens and tenant lounges then this building is not for you. But if a taste of raw space - think concrete floors in some units and spectacular wrap around antique windows in the two-bedroom units - makes your artistic juices start to flow, then this might do the trick.
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