Landlords Attempt to Evict Tenants, Create Private Home

Alumni Karl Ward and Namrata Tripathi, both CC '01, headlined a benefit concert for the tenants of 47 E. 3rd St. at the Bowery Poetry Club in the East Village Saturday night. The concert raised close to $2,000 for the tenants, who have racked up over $150,000 in legal fees over the past three and a half years fighting eviction from their building.

The landlords, Alistair Economakis and his wife Catherine, CC '04, are seeking to evict all of the building's residents, turning the six-story, currently 15-unit, 9,000 square foot, rent-stabilized building into a large home for themselves, their two children, and live-in nanny.

According to the 47 E. 3rd St. Tenants' Association, their proposed home will include five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a gym with a shower, a private library, a suite for their nanny, and a two-story living room with overhanging walkway.

"These landlords acquired this building at a huge discount because the building is rent-stabilized," Ward said. "Even in the most favorable light, this is a clear attempt to subvert and undermine rent stabilization. And remember, the 'most favorable light' here is that these millionaires only want to kick out the tenants so that they can live in a five-story mansion.

But Economakis defends his actions. "Essentially this is a case about two parties: a building's owner and its rental tenants, wanting to live in the same building," he said on his Web site, economakis.com.

"The fundamental question is: who has a greater right to reside in a building, its owner or its rental tenants? I believe that an owner has a greater right to reside in his building than his tenants. The law provides this right and the courts have upheld it," he said.

Catherine Economakis is the daughter of Kathryn Yatrakis, dean of academic affairs for Columbia College.

The law allows property owners to refuse to renew tenants' leases provided that they need the building for personal occupancy. In the last court proceeding on Feb. 14, Justice Luis A. Gonzalez, Law '75, of the State Appellate Division Court affirmed Economakis' interpretation of the law, permitting the landlord to go ahead with the evictions.

The tenants have filed an action with the Court of Appeals in Albany, the highest court in the state. They believe that the case will set the precedent for future rent-stabilized housing cases statewide. Central to their appeal is their charge that the Economakis' bid to clear 47 E. 3rd St. is not to acquire a home, but to use it an excuse to evict the tenants, who only pay rent-stabilized prices for their apartments, and sell the building or rent it out at market price for a sizeable profit.

"The penalty to our landlords, if they decide not to inhabit the entire building after they evict all of us, is a mild slap on the wrist. So we are very skeptical of their true intentions," said David Pultz, 55 and a 28-year resident of 47 E. 3rd St., who pays $625 for his one-bedroom.

"It would be very easy to evict everyone in the building under owner-occupancy and then make the apartments luxury rentals. Is one couple really going to live in a 60-room mansion on 3rd street? It's very hard to believe," he said.