By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
CHINATOWN — The tenants fighting to stay in a Chinatown building damaged by a devastating blaze last month have a powerful new ally.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver called for the residents of 289 Grand St. to be allowed back in their apartments despite attempts by the landlord to force them out following the fire that gutted two adjacent buildings on the block.
The owner of 289 Grand St. recently tried to get the mostly rent-stabilized tenants to give up their leases by telling them the building had to be torn down.
In response, many tenants filed legal actions with the city requiring that the landlord repair the building while maintaining the residents’ rent-regulated status.
“These residents have suffered enough already,” said Silver, whose district covers Chinatown, in a statement on Tuesday. “They are entitled to return to their homes under the existing leases with as little further disruption to their lives as possible.”
Silver cited the Department of Buildings’ determination that the six-story building is structurally sound and “needs only some repair work,” the statement said. He requested the reconstruction work be completed as soon as possible so the tenants can move back in.
“As victims of this tragic fire, some of them lost everything,” Silver said. “I want to make sure we do whatever it takes to get them back home.”
The downtown representative was also instrumental in helping Chinatown residents return to their James Street building after a similar fire occurred there more than a year ago, killing three people.
An attorney for the tenants said that no provision exists in the rent-stabilization code authorizing the termination of leases in this situation.
“He’s shooting blanks,” said John Gorman, who’s been advising the residents on behalf of Asian Americans for Equality, a local advocacy organization.
“These are rent-regulated tenants, and this approach — this stab at evicting the tenants — is not recognized by law,” he added.
A lawyer representing the landlord, Wong’s Grand Street Realty, told Lower East Side blog The Lo-Down last week that he had been told by city officials that the building is indeed unsafe and that the owner was required to send the tenants termination notices under state law.
“No one is going to die on my watch,” attorney Adam Leitman Bailey told The Lo-Down.
The landlord's step-daughter Dinine Signorelle-Wong, who lived in the building, previously stated that a clause in the tenants' leases required them to leave after a fire.
She declined to comment for this story and referred all questions to the attorney.
The seven-alarm fire on April 11 tore through four buildings on the block, killing an elderly resident and leaving up to 200 others homeless.
The six-story residential buildings at 283 and 285-287 Grand St. had to be demolished because of the blaze.
