The website of The Sweater Factory Lofts at 239 Banker Street in Brooklyn claims the building offers unique spaces for unique individuals…at least it did until the building was issued a vacate order by the Department of Buildings, forcing tenants of this illegal residential space to leave and shutting down the website as well.
The DOB website has not only records of active violations at this building dating as far back as 1997, but it also states that part of the violations include illegal conversion of industrial space. Recent violations include general safety issues (i.e. boiler, elevator, construction) as well as consistently ignored stop-work orders. Given that these orders are generally posted on the construction site and are illegal to remove, how do these places even have tenants in the first place? What prompts a developer to advertise this space as livable, knowing full well that it’s hazardous and something that he not only could be, but already is in trouble for? Maybe we’ve taken this whole “urban living” thing a little too far.
I was living in these lofts… I am sure that the landlord knew about these issues… I in fact told him that if these issues were not taken care of that we would be facing the same DOB that other buildings in the area have been shut down for. He told me that this was never going to happen and that he would be fixing the problems. When you have a building as large as 239 banker, and only have about 5 workers… things never get done. I was stupid to think that these lofts would someday become legal, and I am now paying the price. I do however think that this was the owners plan all along. The owner contributes way too much money to outside political funds to just throw away something like this. I think that he is trying to get tenants out so he can pay for rezoning and sell the apartments as condo’s for much more.