Landlord John Gall appears to be doing an end-run in order to empty his property at 1049 Market Street of all its tenants, despite there being dozens of legal, occupied residential units and despite the Department of Building Inspection suspending his permit to remove the units from residential use. On Friday, the 42 remaining tenants in the 75-unit building received fresh eviction notices that seem to be an effort at intimidating them into leaving of their own accord.
As Beyond Chron reports, the new eviction notices probably aren't totally legal, and they're likely aimed at stressing out the three and a half dozen holdouts who remain in the building following the first round of eviction notices that were handed out last fall. Supervisor Jane Kim, Mayor Ed Lee, and multiple tenants' rights groups have since stepped in on behalf of the tenants to stop both a highly publicized mass eviction and the removal of such a large quantity of housing stock from the rental market. (Gall also owns two more buildings on the same block, including the very similarly configured 1067 Market with loft-like, SRO-style units, some of which are not legal dwelling units due to lack of windows, which is the same problem that 1049 Market has.) Gall's intention is to return the building to its original office use, and likely rake in high rents from tech companies attracted to the central location.
Gall dropped his appeal to the City in February, which would have challenged Building Inspection's removal of his permits, signaling what appeared to be a reprieve for the tenants. But given the rock-and-hard-place situation that he's been left in, it has appeared likely that Gall would still be doing his best to get the tenants out, possibly via larger financial settlements, rather than spend even larger sums to try to make a block of about 50 illegal units in the center of the building legal, by way of light wells. Gall purchased the building in 2010, along with its two companion properties, from the landlord who originally converted them to live-work in the late 90s.
As Beyond Chron notes, the Tenderloin Housing Clinic's lawyers are available to help the remaining tenants, assuming they want to continue to fight. And the situation is even more curious given that Planning could still try to punish Gall. "The building cannot be converted to offices without meeting all of the requirements for new office developments under Prop M; and chances for the Planning Commission to approve an office conversion at 1049 if tenants are displaced are between zero and nil."
Previously: Mid-Market Tenants Win Another Reprieve From Eviction
Mid-Market Tenants Suing Landlord To Counter Eviction
