The residences are all still completely illegal. That means that pretty much everything I've ever written about this subject is spot on. It's never been proven that they layouts comply code; no Alt 1 filing, no temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO). I think the DOB has just thrown in the towel. The FD could care less if the building is occupied so long as the sprinklers are working, there's no place of assembly in the building so there's nothing for them to enforce, occupancy-wise. They want to make sure the structure's protected, but unless you're an assembly space, you're off their radar. If you don't agree with that, I'm offering a $500 reward (seriously) to any person that can deliver a document from either the DOB or FD stating the residential occupants are there legally; please note that legal occupancy, per code, would require either a TCO or a Letter of No Objection from the DOB.
I think there's a bit of irony in the fact that all the tenant's that went above and beyond to get the FD to lift the vacate are now having to negotiate new leases; word on the street is that the proposed rents are quite as favorable as they were before he had to pay for some minor upgrades to his warehouse's life-safety systems.
I'm a little upset that the slum lord owner has been paying a lower tax rate for many years as the building, as you can see from this DOB property profile, the Department of Finance Building Classification is still that of a warehouse. I want that tax revenue for improvements to my children's playground. Booooooo.
That's it. Let us never speak of 475 Kent ever again.
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