Report: Hotel Chelsea Landlord Files Motions To Evict 10 Tenants

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- When the new owner of the Hotel Chelsea took over the property last summer, he promised no permanent residents would be thrown out.

Now, it appears he may be going back on that promise.

DNAinfo reports the owner has filed motions to evict 10 tenants -- many of whom have lived at the hotel for decades.

The Chelsea has about 100 permanent residents.

A lawyer for the tenants said the landlord claims those apartments are not rent-stabilized, therefore, making them eligible for eviction.

Hearings on the matter will be held in housing court starting next week.

"They're trying to evict whoever they can," resident Ed Hamilton told 1010 WINS. "They've served eviction papers on dozens of people for anything from the lease being up with the market tenants to non-payment."

Hamilton, who is not one of the 10 tenants heading to court, said he received an eviction notice along with several other tenants last Thursday whom the landlord has taken legal action against claiming they're behind on their rent.

Hamilton said many residents have been withholding their rent because of extremely poor conditions at the hotel.

"People have had their pipes burst above their apartments and had their apartments flooded, there's been continuous dust in the air, there's been disruptive noise, there's holes in the walls that they won't fix," Hamilton said.

"They've made it clear that we just don't belong here and they want to get rid of us," he added.

The 12-floor, 250-room landmark hotel, was built in 1883. For over 50 years it was a haven for struggling artists.

The hotel hosted celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Arthur Miller and his wife Marylin Monroe, musicians Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and punk rocker Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols who killed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen there in 1978.