Welcome to the neighborhood! We are the 215 Bath Tenants Association (BTA) and we are a strong and diverse community of long-term residents. We formed our tenants’ association in order to preserve and improve our community, and we write this open letter to invite the owners, 215 Bath LLC — Chris Parker, Austin Herlihey, James Knapp, Jr., and Timothy Morton-Smith — to come to the table and negotiate with us in good faith.
We understand that potentially hazardous conditions on the property need to be addressed, as you put it, “as quickly as possible.” We appreciate that “tenant safety is [your] primary concern,” however, it has become clear to us that your main goal in your acquisition of this property is to replace our community with “West Beach College Commons,” a private dormitory for student tenants with shared-room rental agreements.
Around the time you took ownership, many of us received “non-renewal” notices without “just cause” or relocation assistance. You then began emailing “surrender offers” that stated you intended to terminate all of our tenancies and that there was a risk of electrical fire if you did not repair our wiring soon. Some of us signed your offers. Last week, this came to a crescendo when you delivered termination notices to all of us who had not signed your surrender offers.