EAST HARLEM — The owner of a popular boxing gym displaced by rising rent is fighting mad about what he claims is a below-the-belt approach to renting out basement space in NYCHA's Johnson Houses.
Jose Sanchez, founder of El Barrio Boxing, wants to get back into the ring after he said his landlord tripled the rent at his former East 115th St. gym. But he said NYCHA keeps changing its requirements to allow him to rent the space that includes three large rooms, men and women's bathrooms and a small kitchen.
“They are being way too demanding,” Sanchez said. “Every other week they ask for something new.”
NYCHA wants El Barrio to clean the water-stained, vermin-infested space, hire NYCHA residents as staffers, not use their own vending machines and give NYCHA residents 50-percent membership discounts, according to Sanchez.
NYCHA officials said the agency recommended, but did not require, Sanchez to hire residents.
Still, Sanchez agreed, signed a lease and gave NYCHA a $2,100 security deposit and $2,100 for the first month’s rent. But he has yet to get the keys to the basement of 1820 Lexington Ave., he said.
"They are playing games with us," he said.
A NYCHA spokeswoman said the agency wants the deal to move forward, but inadequate insurance — to cover potential abuse and molestation, liability for social services and administering flu shots — is holding up the move.
NYCHA has held El Barrio's deposits, but the checks have not been cashed, she added.
Sanchez said he added abuse and molestation coverage to El Barrio's insurance last month. He said they also submitted amended plans for the proposed gym, eliminating the counseling and flu shots, which makes the additional coverage unnecessary.
While the city and the gym settle the dispute, boxers that had been training with El Barrio for years have had to find other places to work out.
“It’s affecting us a lot,” said Jose Agosto, 20. “We had a home right here in the neighborhood. Now we have to travel to other boroughs.”
Agosto, an amateur fighter who wants to go pro, trains at another gym in The Bronx six days a week. Membership to the new gym is about $20 more than it was at El Barrio, he said.
El Barrio closed just when they were starting to get a strong reputation in the city’s boxing community, Agosto said.
“We were winning good fights — we had a couple of Golden Gloves,” he said. “All of a sudden we got a letter saying we had to move.”
Members originally thought the gym would reopen in a matter of months, said Darryl Won, a manager.
“I see kids all the time asking me when’s the gym opening,” he said. “I used to tell them, ‘next month, next month.’ I don’t know what to tell them now.”
Sanchez estimates that by staying closed since October, the gym has missed out on about $40,000. That money could’ve gone toward repainting and repairing the basement, setting up the new gym, and setting up sponsorships for boxers, he said.
“We are trying to do something good,” he said. “A lot of our boxers come from NYCHA projects, it’s ridiculous that they are holding us up.”
