Hotel Alexander tenants refuse to leave

Eight rent-stabilized tenants at the Upper West Side single-room-occupancy building formerly known as the Hotel Alexander, at 306 West 94th Street, are refusing to leave their homes, holding up the city’s controversial plans to convert the property into a 200-bed men’s homeless shelter. According to the Wall Street Journal, the tenants received offers of $50,000 plus three years’ free rent at an adjacent building that their landlord also owns. They had until Tuesday to accept the offer, but none did. Owner Alexander Scharf declined to comment on the offer and said only that he is
leasing out the building. “I am not involved with that,” he said,
referring to the offer. The shelter, which will be operated by Samaritan Village and will cost the city $7.9 million per year, is slated to open within weeks, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeless Services said, but the city wants to resolve the dispute before that happens. [WSJ]