They’re shoring up for a legal battle.
The besieged owner of Bay Ridge’s troubled Prince Hotel is scrambling to bring his building up to code as the city tries to force the property’s sale to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines he’s racked up over the last decade. Owner Moses Fried filed permits with the Department of Buildings to “remove all pending violations … and obtain a new certificate of occupancy” for the building, but the move may actually dig him deeper into trouble, according to the community board’s district manager.
“It seems he’s trying to make a step towards compliance, but the changes he is proposing do not appear to be complaint with the current zoning,” Josephine Beckmann said.
Fried aims to convert some single-room occupancy apartments — hotel rooms rented out on a monthly basis — into regular hotel rooms.
Rentals were legal when the Prince was built before the Depression, but a 2005 rezoning barred any new temporary housing on the site moving forward — now only apartments and condos are allowed. The city grand-fathered in Fried’s existing rooms at the time, but he can’t create any new hotel beds — even if he is just changing chambers from monthly to nightly use, Beckmann said.
The Sheriff’s Department raided the alleged flophouse in February and posted deputies there to collect all money coming in until Fired had paid off nearly $400,000 in building code violations. Weeks later, the city moved to take and sell the property, scheduling a June auction date, but Fried filed an appeal to block the sale in May.
Fried did not respond to requests for comment.
