BY SAM SPOKONY | A Chinatown advocacy group held its third protest outside the new Wyndham Garden Hotel on the Bowery last Friday, again condemning William Su, one of the hotel’s owners, for what protesters call his unjust treatment of the former tenants of 128 Hester St., who were left homeless in 2009.
Su’s attorney, Stuart A. Klein, responded on Monday, saying that within a week the landlord and his associates will sue Asian Americans For Equality, the group behind the protest, for libel and slander.
“It was quite some time ago that we told them we would sit down and negotiate in good faith,” Klein said, “as long as they would promise to stop these lies and these press conferences. And they’ve flatly refused to stop.”
Friday’s protest was the third in two months outside the hotel at 93 Bowery, which sits just down the block from the former site of 128 Hester St.
Up till now, AAFE has had no trouble gathering in front of the Wyndham, since it has not yet opened. But since the hotel is now scheduled to open sometime in September, according to Wyndham’s Web site, the stage may be set for an even more heated conflict.
Protesters continue to condemn Su for what they call his repeated refusal to provide housing or compensation to the eight families — a total of 29 tenants — who were displaced when the city’s Department of Buildings ordered 128 Hester St. demolished in August 2009.
In their first press conference outside the hotel, which occurred in July, AAFE also claimed that the landlord backed out of a June 7 settlement conference held by the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
Su and several associates — collectively known as 128 Hester St., L.L.C. — purchased the building in 2007, and AAFE asserts he intentionally neglected it, leading to the building’s demolition two years later. AAFE also claims, citing comments made by D.O.B., that Su’s construction of the Wyndham, in an adjacent lot, played a part in the structural deterioration of 128 Hester St.
AAFE has brought in local leaders to speak on behalf of their cause. Julie Menin, a candidate for Manhattan borough president and former Community Board 1 chairperson, spoke at the group’s Aug. 7 press conference, alongside a representative of the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council.
At Friday’s protest Xin Shu Zheng, a former tenant of 128 Hester St. spoke. He now lives in Queens and said that he and his wife are struggling to make ends meet now that they have lost touch with the Chinatown community.
Zheng said, through a translator, that if he could meet William Su today, “I would tell him that he is a liar.”
In addition to asserting that all of AAFE’s claims are false, Klein told this newspaper that he wishes the protesters would stop exclusively using Su’s name.
“William Su was not the owner of 128 Hester St.,” Klein said. “He is not the owner of 93 Bowery. He is one of a number of people who own an L.L.C. that owns the locations. So why he is being singled out is beyond me.”
Klein said Su and his partners did not lie to the former tenants. Klein said they did put money into the building in an effort to maintain it adequately, and that, after the building became unsafe, found a nearby location for the displaced tenants to relocate to, but that AAFE rejected the plan.
