NEWS


Charas owner considers sale

By Lincoln Anderson

Five years after it was sold at auction, the former CHARAS/El Bohio building on E. Ninth St. near Avenue B remains fenced off and unrenovated.

A group of protestors who were evicted from the former CHARAS/El Bohio building a year and a half ago recently were cleared of misdemeanor charges in connection with their arrests.

Seven individuals who had linked hands inside plastic PVC tubes with “community” written on them when police swooped in to clear out the former community and cultural center on Dec. 28, 2001, were found innocent by a six-member jury on June 19 of resisting arrest, obstruction of governmental administration and trespassing. Some of them had clipped their hands to each other inside the tubes but some had just stuck their hands in the tubes.

“It was just wonderful!” said Susan Howard, one of the defendants and a leader of the Save CHARAS committee, of the verdict. The other defendants included Barbara Ross, Maya Ramnath, Ronald Duncan, Jr., Emily Wilson, Garrett Ramirez and Michael Casey.

Howard said that in their defense they argued that they had planned to hold their protest on the building’s front steps. Howard said Chino Garcia, head of CHARAS, opposed a last-ditch resistance effort inside the building, and that most of the activists involved in the effort voted not to force police to evict them from inside.

“We made it very clear that we did not want to occupy the building,” she said.

Howard said, however, that while she had been in communication with the Ninth Precinct to try to get advance word on the eviction date, they were surprised when police suddenly moved in on a freezing cold morning, were blocked from getting outside and had no choice but to do the protest action inside the building.

Meanwhile, five years after the six-story, former city-owned building was purchased at auction for $3.2 million by developer Gregg Singer, it remains vacant. The building has a deed restriction for community-use facilities.

Howard said she heard Singer was distraught at being unable to lease the building and that now he’s looking to sell it.

“Why can’t he sell it back to the community?” she said. “We want it back.”

She said CHARAS, which currently is operating out of a loft space in E. Harlem, would be willing to buy the building for $6 million.

Howard was happy to note that Singer recently made NY Press’s top 50 list of “Most Loathsome New Yorkers.” He ranked 12th in the Press’s poll because of the eviction of CHARAS and number two in the reader survey. (Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver ranked number one in the Press’s poll; the paper accused him of being an ambulance-chasing private attorney when not legislating in Albany.)

Singer said things are going according to plan with the building but that its deed restriction and dealing with nonprofit organizations present special challenges and that the process takes time. Some of the nonprofits are more interested in buying space or the building than in doing a long-term lease, he said.

Though noting he would sell “for the right number,” he said, “It’s not on the market for sale.” He said it’s more profitable for him to lease it long term.

However, Singer’s Web page singerfinancialcorp.com/school states that “This beautiful six-story brick building located in the East Village of Manhattan is vacant and available for lease or sale. The building is ideal for schools, universities, dormitories, medical offices, hospitals and related facilities, nonprofit institutions with or without sleeping accommodations.”

The Web site also notes that there are air rights to build an additional 75,000 sq. ft. of space.

Singer said the reason some nonprofits want to buy is because while nonprofits that own their property don’t have to pay real estate taxes, if they lease, they are taxed. Also, because interest rates are at a 40-year low, it’s a good time to buy. However, he noted, if they plan to purchase a property, nonprofits usually need some time to raise the money.

Singer said he told his partners in the CHARAS purchase that they were looking at a minimum of five years “to know what we were doing with the building.” By his estimate, they’re already ahead of schedule.

“I thought it would take three to four years to get them out of the building,” he said of CHARAS. “I put it in the partnership papers. We were lucky to get them out in two and a half years.

“We’re just waiting for the solid financial tenant,” Singer said. “Our preference is one or two tenants, but if I knew I had five solid tenants that would be fine.”

If he leases the space, it would be for anywhere from 25 to 99 years. The commercial rent being advertised is $15 per sq. ft., which he said is “the cheapest in Manhattan.”

He said he expects to have signed leases by 2005 and start construction in late 2005 or early 2006. No construction is being done now, though people are looking at the space and considering how to develop it. It depends on what the use will be, he explained: counseling groups want small rooms; mental health organizations want larger rooms; schools want classrooms. He declined to divulge which groups he is negotiating with or which type of organizations are expressing interest.

Singer said buying the building at auction for a little over $3 million was a steal and that the wait to develop it is not financially burdensome.

“It’s the best deal I ever bought,” he said. “It sold at a ridiculously low price. It doesn’t matter if it takes 10 years to lease it.”

Describing his development strategy, he said: “You’ve got to find the problems, get them [illegal tenants] out and create the value.”

Told of Howard’s comments that he’s a nervous wreck because he can’t lease the building, Singer said, “Susan Howard’s a joke. What am I upset about? She’s unbelievable.”

He said he was unfamiliar with NY Press or the poll, though informed of the latter, found it amusing.

Regarding the innocent verdict on the CHARAS eviction protestors, Singer commented, “Their life’s a free ride; that’s what they do. It’s all about scheming and what they can get away with. This is one they got away with. They have no conscience. So when you’re brought up that way….”

On Howard’s proposal to sell CHARAS the building for $6 million, he asked why didn’t they buy it five years ago when they could have bought it for half that price.

One other thing, Singer noted: “We now call it ‘The School Building on East Ninth Street.’ We don’t call it CHARAS or El Bohio because they’re out. It’s just a school building.”