Tenants sue again to stop shelter conversion

Adam Leitman Bailey is working a new angle to block a shelter conversion that could displace elderly tenants from a Greenwich Village building.

In 2021, tenants tapped the media-savvy attorney to sue the owner of 27 West 11th Street, where nonprofit Project Renewal planned a 90-bed women’s shelter. The suit alleged construction would disturb asbestos and lead paint in the building, endangering its few remaining tenants.

They hoped the suit would stall construction so long that Project Renewal would find another site. No dice.

“Project Renewal is pursuing the shelter” at 27 West 11th Street, a spokesperson for the nonprofit said Wednesday.

After the landlord, St. Claire Builders & Contractors, got the city to approve needed repairs last year, the court discontinued the first lawsuit.

The complaint filed this week takes aim at the project’s building plans, alleging proposed changes violate city laws and building codes and would endanger the health and safety of the tenants he represents.

The tenants argue that the plans, for which the Department of Buildings issued a work permit in December, lack enough cellar-level exits to meet city law, violate the building code by having an elevator open up to a primary fire exit, and have an undersized main stairwell, alongside other missteps.

“In order to exit, [tenants] would be competing with 100 homeless shelter occupants in the event of a fire,” Leitman Bailey writes, referring to the 90 new residents the 64-unit building would accommodate.

“These insufficient egress paths form the land-based equivalent of the Titanic’s insufficient lifeboats,” the attorney added.

The complaint notes that the project’s tenant protection plan includes concrete work and a stair replacement that would obstruct fire exits during construction.

“[The tenants], even under less panicked conditions than a fire, are unable to walk with the kind of speed achievable by one somewhat more in the prime of life,” the suit reads.

Leitman Bailey again claims the conversion would stir up asbestos, as the plans only account for the toxic fire-retardant in the cellar, “leaving the rest of the building unspoken for.”

St. Claire did not comment in time for publication.