Residents booted from Flatiron building

Tenants were evacuated today from 1182 Broadway at 29th Street, a former manufacturing building that had been illegally transformed into a residential rental space, according to Curbed. The building lacked several basic safety features, the Department of Buildings said, including fire sprinklers, secondary exits and adequate stairwells to avoid entrapment. The building owner, Mocal Enterprises, was handed violations for the improper conversion and for allowing tenants to move in despite the building’s lack of necessary permits. The units, which had rents ranging from $2,900 to $6,000, were marketed as “live-work space[s],” that would cause “your artistic juices… to flow.” Mocal, for its part, said it’s currently working with DOB to “resolve this unfortunate situation.”