Ace Hotel’s SRO residents claim neglect

While the Ace Hotel has drawn a trendy clientele since opening in May 2009 at 1186 Broadway on the corner of 29th Street, the remaining few single-room-occupancy tenants living there are none too pleased by the changes that have happened to their home, according to the New York Post. Roughly 30 rent-stabilized tenants currently live in the hotel, some of whom pay just $500 a month for their pads. But residents there, who tried to stop the building’s conversion to a hotel with a lawsuit in 2008, say that hotel developer GFI Development is trying to push them out by ignoring routine maintenance requests and barring them from the hotel’s common areas. GFI, meanwhile, argues that the residents’ claims are unfounded and says that they’re making a stink in an effort to get a bigger buyout deal. [Post]