For the aged artists who’ve lived for many years on the higher flooring of a nineteenth century cast-iron SoHo loft constructing on Mercer Road, the final six years have been a bodily and emotional nightmare with a singular trigger: their landlord banned them from the constructing’s sole elevator in 2019.
However getting the town to do one thing about this has became a separate odyssey, with delay after delay — together with a 16-month pause prompted, partially, by a backlog on the metropolis Loft Board — to lastly get the owner to agree to revive entry.
For visible artist Donald Lewallen, 89, and his photographer spouse, Myrel Chernick, 74, the trek right down to the road from their fourth flooring loft is arduous and, for Lewallen, treacherous.
“The primary motive is to get us to go away. I imply how a lot can we stand to reside right here in a fourth flooring walkup at our age?” Chernick stated. “At this level going up and down the steps is admittedly laborious. If I’ve to exit greater than as soon as a day it’s actually tiring. It actually curtails your exercise.”
‘It’s So Laborious’
Lewallen suffered a stroke that severely restricted his mobility, so he should descend one step at a time with a house well being care aide strolling subsequent to him, holding on to his belt to make sure he doesn’t fall. It takes a really very long time to get all the way in which down, and by the point he arrives at avenue stage, he’s exhausted.
“I am going out twice every week as a result of it’s so laborious to go up and down these stairs,” he stated. “My purpose is to stroll down alone.”
And so it goes for Lewallen and Chernick and a half-dozen different pioneering artist tenants of their 70s and 80s who’ve lived within the Mercer Road loft constructing because the Seventies, when artists first moved into SoHo and triggered the formation of New York Metropolis’s one-of-a-kind Loft Legislation that permits working artists to reside in buildings zoned for industrial use.
The delay at Mercer Road, officers concede, was due partially to understaffing on the Loft Board, the town company that oversees enforcement of that regulation, the place solely two attorneys had been dealing with a rising variety of complaints from tenants throughout the town.
Late final week, after inquiries from Councilmember Christopher Marte, D-Manhattan, and The Metropolis Reporter, the constructing’s proprietor, Sq. Churchill Mercer LLC, lastly agreed to repair the issue, informing the board that they count on service will likely be restored inside 4 weeks.
Chernick — whereas grateful for the promised remedy — isn’t holding her breath.
“Let’s see what occurs,” she stated, “earlier than we get too excited.”
Her reluctance to have a good time is born of a protracted historical past of frustration attempting to get the Loft Board — an oversight company presently made up of eight mayoral appointees — to make the owner observe the regulation.
A Distinctive Legislation
The Mercer Road constructing is like many previously empty manufacturing facility areas that artists, looking for cheap area to do their work, commandeered within the Seventies. The hire was low-cost however they spent their very own cash to rework what had been open loft areas into livable residences, putting in plumbing and electrical programs, placing up drywall to create bedrooms and constructing out workable kitchens. They created their very own residing areas, although the properties weren’t zoned for residential use.
“Don’s going to be 90 this yr. You may see he has a walker. For him to should go up and down the steps is admittedly, actually troublesome.”
Myrel Chernick
In 1982 the state enacted a particular exception that allowed “Artists In Residence” to proceed residing in these areas at rent-stabilized charges, with constructing homeowners required to deliver buildings as much as code and acquire a certificates of occupancy from the Buildings Division. The Loft Board was created to control this course of.
Elevator Video games
At first, the unique proprietor of the Mercer Road constructing, Friedman Actual Property, allowed residents free use of a freight elevator that serviced 5 tales of residences from the basement to the highest flooring. In 2007 the constructing was offered to a second proprietor, Centurion, who continued to permit tenants entry to the elevate however required that they offer constructing managers 48 hours discover to make use of it.
Then in 2016 a brand new proprietor took cost — Sq. Churchill Mercer LLC.
In 2019, three years into possession, Churchill all of the sudden introduced the elevator was now off-limits.
Tenants say generally the constructing supervisor would inform them the elevator was damaged, different instances they had been merely instructed they couldn’t use it.
Information present the elevator final handed inspection in December 2022, however after that the proprietor seems to have stopped submitting inspection studies as required. Since 2023 the Buildings Division has issued six violations and $18,000 in fines.
Throughout that point, Chernick notes with a touch of incredulity, the dearth of elevate had a devastating impact on the lives of artists who pay their hire on time and had been attempting in useless to get metropolis bureaucrats to make the owner — a world actual property agency — do the proper factor.
“It enormously impacts us,” she stated. “Don’s going to be 90 this yr. You may see he has a walker. For him to should go up and down the steps is admittedly actually troublesome. He does it. However he hardly goes out.”
Chernick acknowledges that the couple pay de minimis hire — $683 a month — however alleges the owner by no means fixes something and the constructing nonetheless has no certificates of occupancy. The elevator shutdown, she believes, was designed to drive them out so the owner can change them with tenants prepared to pay market fee rents.
In March 2019. Chernick, Lewallen and 5 different tenants employed a lawyer and filed a grievance with the Loft Board. Subpoenas had been issued.
Delay After Delay
Then got here the pandemic in March 2020, pushing the trial first to June 2021, then to January 2022. The events quickly after said they’d reached a settlement “in precept,” however no official doc was signed. In March 2022, the proprietor’s legal professionals introduced they had been withdrawing from the case, pushing the battle into 2023, then 2024.
Then Susan Pogoda, the executive regulation decide within the metropolis’s Workplace of Administrative Trials and Hearings dealing with the dispute, took one other yr to situation her ruling. In Might 2025, she advisable that the Loft Board order the proprietor to “restore petitioners’ limitless 24/7 entry to the elevator for passenger and freight functions.”
And nonetheless it took the Loft Board one more yr to situation a Might 14, 2026, order requiring the proprietor to repair the issue inside 30 days. These 30 days got here and went, with the elevator off-limits for the tenants — and the Loft Board did nothing.
“We couldn’t consider that,” Chernick stated. “We referred to as our lawyer and he stated there’s nothing you are able to do.”
Final week after inquiries from Councilmember Marte and The Metropolis Reporter, the Loft Board lastly took motion, hitting the proprietor with two violations, together with one for ignoring the Might order. For the primary time, the proprietor agreed to revive entry to the elevate. (Representatives for the proprietor didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark).
On Monday, Marte criticized the board for taking a yr to reply to the executive decide’s ruling, noting that the board was already conscious of issues on the Mercer Road constructing attributable to a lot of 311 complaints in regards to the elevator and a number of different issues there going again years.
“This can be a sample with the Loft Board. They actually drag their ft to help tenants,” he stated. “We all know that there’s a backlog for each company. However while you’re speaking about weak seniors who actually can’t get out of their houses…I believe there’s a stage of urgency there that ought to require a speedy response.”
Andrew Rudansky, spokesperson for the Division of Buildings, which oversees the Loft Board, famous that in Might 2025, when the executive decide issued her discovering, the Loft Board had a employees of seven, solely two of whom had been legal professionals. Since then, he stated, the employees has been elevated to 11, together with 4 legal professionals and two paralegals.
On Friday, Rudansky stated that, going ahead, the Loft Board will fastidiously monitor the proprietor’s actions. The constructing, in the meantime, has but to acquire a certificates of occupancy because it was presupposed to a long time in the past.
“Landlords are legally required to make sure that any elevators of their constructing are saved in protected operable service,” he stated. “We’ll proceed to push the homeowners to reside as much as their authorized obligations, and urge all of the events to work collectively in direction of the complete legalization of this Loft Legislation constructing.”
