Council Member Julie Won joined dozens of displaced tenants in Sunnyside on Tuesday morning to demand that landlord A&E Real Estate enact repairs at a building gutted by fire in December 2023.
The five-alarm fire ripped through 43-09 47th Ave. on Dec. 20, 2023, as residents were preparing to celebrate the holiday season. Investigators determined that a contractor hired by A&E had caused the fire by illegally using a blow torch, which caused the blaze to tear through the six-story, 107-unit building.
The inferno displaced around 250 residents, more than half of whom had been living in rent-stabilized or rent-controlled units.
On Tuesday, 790 days after the fire, residents gathered outside the building to demand that A&E make repairs. They also demanded that the real estate firm enter into good-faith negotiations with insurer Chubb on the residents’ behalf so that tenants are fairly compensated for the losses incurred during the fire.
Chubb and A&E have not yet responded to QNS’ request for comment. In the past, the real estate firm has blamed a dispute with insurer Seneca for the ongoing delays to repairs.
Attorney Brett Gallaway of McLaughlin and Stern, a firm representing tenants at the building, said Seneca has offered to pay $8 million toward repairs, but alleged that A&E has estimated that it will cost $26 million to repair the damage.
Gallaway said Tuesday morning that A&E should take the $8 million so that it can begin repairs and then fight for a higher payment at a later date.
“They (A&E) are engaged in an ongoing legal battle with Seneca, which is going to take years. Then construction starts after that,” Gallaway said.
Won, meanwhile, accused A&E of attempting to “wait out” tenants in rent-stabilized units so that it can renovate the building and rent units at market rate.
Tenants displaced by the fire were initially offered six-month temporary relocation license agreements, allowing them to rent units in other A&E-owned buildings at the same rate they had paid in Sunnyside. Those agreements have been extended in six-month increments, but many of the apartments are located a significant distance from Sunnyside and the number of tenants who have accepted the agreement has “dwindled,” according to Gallaway.
He added that tenants who took the deal are left in the “unsustainable” situation of worrying if the agreement is going to be extended every six months.
In a previous response to QNS, A&E pushed back strongly against allegations that it is leaving the building in a state of bad repair in order to take rent-stabilized units off the market. The company added that it only had a limited number of vacant units in Sunnyside and insisted it “did its best” to keep displaced residents in the neighborhood.
A company spokesperson said New York City law mandates that a unit’s rent-stabilized status must be maintained now matter how long repairs take and added that the building is “hemorrhaging money” in its current state as A&E cannot collect any rent.
However, residents said Tuesday morning that they have spent the last two years in “limbo” as they continue to mourn the loss of their homes and priceless family heirlooms that span generations.
Faith Little, a resident displaced by the fire, blasted A&E for failing to begin repairs at the building.
“We have been displaced for over two years,” Little said. “During this time, my building’s management company has not made a single repair, not one. I see no evidence of a replaced window, a patched wall or repair to the damage that was made to my home and my neighbors’ homes that made them uninhabitable.
“They have not communicated when or even if repairs will happen. I walk past this building several times a week to pick up my nephew from the Children’s Lab School. Sometimes I sit for a while, look up at the building and notice things like Christmas trees still standing inside darkened windows.”
She said she has spent two years of her life living in “borrowed spaces,” living in “suspension” as she waits for A&E to begin repairs.
“I’m not asking for sympathy. I’m looking for accountability.”
Justin Jones, who also lived in the building at the time of the inferno, also demanded accountability.
“Two years have passed and I’m tired,” Jones said. “We’ve been waiting for transparency. We’ve been waiting for accountability.”
He said residents would “never be made whole” because it would be impossible to replace jewelry passed down from generation to generation or photo albums filled with “decades of memories.” However, he said accountability is imperative to prevent similar incidents from taking place in the future.
“Without consequences, the same thing will happen again,” Jones said. “This is unacceptable. When there are no consequences, there is no deterrent.”
Lauren Koenig, who had lived in the building for 13 years before the December 2023 fire, said A&E had “no business” operating as a landlord in the city.
Koenig had been paying $2,650 in monthly rent before the fire and has now found a new apartment at $3,100 a month, a yearly increase of around $6,000. She did not take an apartment in another A&E building because most were located in neighborhoods far removed from Sunnyside, stating that the deal effectively uprooted residents who called the neighborhood home.
“Only about 25 people took the deal, because it’s a raw deal,” Koenig previously told QNS. “I didn’t take it.”
Koenig called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to take action against the real estate firm and said it was the Mayor’s “time to shine.” Similarly, Won pledged to “get the Mayor’s attention.” City Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Won also urged A&E to enter into negotiations with Chubb so that residents can be compensated for the losses caused by the fire. She said it is impossible to put a price on “childhood memories that can no longer be accessed” or “family heirlooms that have disappeared.”
“You can’t put a price on the emotional distress that every single person has experienced because of A&E’s negligence,” Won said. “This is solely on the responsibility of the landlord.”
