The Fight for 47 East 3^rd Street

The rent-stabilized tenants of 47 East 3rd Street have fought back against the threat of mass eviction for over four years.

Alistair and Catherine Economakis (née Yatrakis), wealthy real-estate operatives who, as part of their family's corporation, control over fifty apartment buildings in New York City, are trying to evict every tenant in this rent stabilized 6-story, East Village tenement building. Their ploy is to exploit the "owner occupancy" provision of the rent laws by claiming that they will transform all 15 apartments plus two store-fronts into an 11,000 sq. ft. luxury mansion for themselves.

The Yatrakis/Economakis family acquired 47 East 3rd Street for less than one million dollars, as it was headed towards foreclosure; as corporate owners they operated the property under the name Third Street Development LLC. They would be able to reap maximum profits if they could take the building out of rent regulation. They needed a strategy. The Economakises decided to exploit the owner-use clause in the rent laws which allows a landlord to recover "one or more" apartments for his or her private use. But companies can't legally evict tenants for a landlord's personal use, only individual owners can. No problem! In August 2003, 47 East 3rd Street was "sold"--for zero dollars, with Catherine Economakis signing as the seller and Alistair Economakis as the buyer--from the family-owned Third Street Development LLC, to themselves as individual owners, enabling the mass eviction to begin. Their other properties remain controlled by LLCs.

The Economakis strategy, if successful, could set a dangerous precedent that would make it much easier to evict rent stabilized residents across New York City.

The tenants maintain that removing a rent stabilized building from the scarce housing stock of New York City under the guise of "owner occupancy" is the epitome of greed and a blatant misuse of the rent laws.