the thing is that there is other building permits out to do work on this property. my colleague will speak very eloquently about that. but the concern is that this is a large hotel. it is a building of 78 guest rooms, 49 residential, while others are approximately maybe 20-30. the size of a large apartment building or mid size residential hotel. the problem is they have been at this for a while. they started to do renovations and they didn't have permits, yet when the housing inspect or was out there in late february, some of those rooms have not been finished to allow the residents to live in those very bad

conditions. let me give you a brief explanation as to why this is in this condition and we ask you that this not be granted because of the revolving door. so much the notice of violation has somewhat stepped into the shoe of operating this hotel which is not a good way to do business. we actually did a room to room inspection of this building not along ago and that was in september of 2010. it has several violations. we were able to post that particular violation in july of 2011. about 9 or 10 months later we go back which is april of 2012.

that resulted in a notice of violation in may of last year, 15 page notice of violation. as you can see generally when we company room to room inspections, it's a message to the property owner that you need to be doing something different as far as the operation to the hotel. that message is not getting to the property owner or the operator. we understand they have changed operator. that's been a while. 10-12 months later and we have not seen any changes to the conditions of the people living in this building. that is the concern. from that stand we feel very strongly about this that the question for additional time should not be given. that an order of abatement should be placed on the property and that we encourage them to move forward but they need to do so in a way they are operating the building

and doing it on a needs basis. i can show you photos. it's the type of where these conditions painting over sprinkler heads. the room here may have been renovated but not all the rooms have been and not one person in the last year or so where all of these renovations have occurred, as i said, the last in expectation we did, he looked at some renovated rooms. they weren't finished. we need much more substantial progress in the right areas. not a flurry of activity where it's not addressing the living conditions of the people in the

building. that is our concern. thank you. >> a point of reference. >> next speaker? >> good morning. my name is rich strap. i'm the lawyer representing the ownership. she's entirely correct that this building has had a very bad history. i would like to give a very quick overview of the context of the work that's being done and then introduce the contractor that is in the process of doing the work as well as mr. noelke. the history

of this building is that it was under a 20-year lease with a prior operator which ended january of last year. it was a mess. the task force inspection of a year ago documents the condition in which the property was left by the end of the previous operator who at the end of his lease chose not to make any upgrades of any kind whatsoever. as soon as the owners took possession a year ago january, a new lessee was brought in, who is present here today as well as two representative of the owner as well as mr. noelke who is their consultant and new work commenced last year, but after the task force inspection because it was concluded that there were so many problems that instead of simply going

around and doing a band aid fix on this or that room, it became clear that a complete remodel of the whole building was needed. that is under way and because it's under way and it's about 1/3 done and about 1/3 of the $600,000 cost is spent. why we are here asking for more time. essentially i have much of the documents before you is part of the old bad news. but there is, and this is simply a chart to try to show in a graphic way the green and red, the green having been completed. the red still to be done, but the point is there are numerous categories here that go far beyond the scope of

the original and this chart goes on and on. it's way too much detail for me to go into the detail, but simply to note that what we have is a 4-phase process that is under way as to the tenants and there are 24 occupants. 24 rooms that are occupied. all the rest are vacant. they are to be moved to the completed rooms which should be final within the next two months. what i will do now is introduce mr. larry wong who is the contractor from wings construction doing the job to comment briefly on what he's done and what he's doing and why with all respect we need more time. mr. wong? >> hi, i'm larry wong with wgs

construction. we are the contractor. we started our work in august of 2012. primarily for the electrical portion of these violations. we were brought in about one month of progressive work. our work was ordered to stop. it took about 3 month's time for people to do abatement inspection and after 3 months and testing results it was found the lead was not sufficient enough. our work resumed immediately after this came out. the owner supplied a thick packet of violation to me in 2012 and he asked for my opinion. my opinion was that to repair items would last about

two years. now, let me give you some contacts. the building is occupied by not so ideal tenants. they pea on the wall and by repairing these items, the odor and stains would reveal themselves in about two years. i told the owner that rather than repairing these items, you should replace them. that would guarantee it for at least 20 years. he liked what i said so in december of 2012 i went to obtain the permits for the remainder of the renovation. the permit was for every violation in that violation packet and i have record on the permit itself that states that basically all violations would be completed. as we did the work for these past months, are what we noticed is instead of replacing

just a fix you fixture, a sink, we had to take out the walls for the drainage lines. it took more time. about 45 percent of the electrical is done of the building itself. 45 percent of the windows installations. about 25 percent of the plumbing and only about 25 percent of the building work has been done. the reason for this is building work actually occurs at the end of the project where finishes are in stalled. in the lump sum we are about 30 percent there. by my estimation with the current process, it should take about a year to complete. so we are here today to disclose where we are at. there is quite amount of work to be done.

>> thank you. >> mr. wong. when was the last time your building inspect or was out there? >> about two weeks ago. >> would you happen to know his name. >> it was for electrical i believe. it was a female. >> no issues there? >> no issues there. we are working well with inspect ors so every comment. >> the building inspect or was, i represent the owner in this case. commissioners and mr. president, we have on this property this notice of violation is some 95 or 93 separate items. some in the public areas, some in the rooms. the areas, the public area items have been generally

cleared. and taken care of, but they are stopgap. we know they are going to be redone again once we complete this, we are going through this process. currently we have 4 building permits, active building permits and working under two building permit. we have a license contractor working and as as as asbestos lead specialist and we have new windows which was not part of the notice. we found that patching these windows and trying to change the cord didn't work. we needed new windows. the job kept getting bigger. it started with what are we going to do, are we

going to fix these to comply with the notice. it took time. we were interrupted for 3 months, closed down because of the asbestos and lead complaint. there wasn't a problem with the lead. it was the containment and the workman ship. that's been cleared up. we have a new operator in the hotel. some of these hotel run down in many cases because the operator doesn't keep up day-to-day maintenance. what we are asking for is we've expended by permit fees we'll over $12,000. we have new water pressure in order to do plumbing we need more water

service. we are doing a bathroom grade. that's not part of this notice, but we have to provide more bathrooms. it goes on an on. so therefore with these active permits, the point is we are operating in goodwill. we need a year to finish this project up. we have so many things going on in this building. we simply request that and it would be one thing if we weren't doing anything. we are moving ahead as quickly as we can. there have been back steps in this process. thank you for your time. >> thank you. department

rebuttal? >> he gets to speak during public comment. >> you can speak during public comment. it's time for rebuttal. >> members of the board, thank you. a couple comments on the lead issue. you heard him talk about the containment issue. that's something they are supposed to do. that's not bogus. that is something that the people living in the building had to deal with and that is having it migrate all over because you didn't start the work properly. the concern is, i did not deny the fact that there is a lot of activity going on but it not addressed the living conditions of the people living in the building. heard testimony that the

property owner got rid of the operator that was not good. if every property owner hid behind a lessee, we would never get compliance in residential hotel that have lessee. the property owner should have known or had to know because of the notices of violation of what was going on in this building. that should have happened before. the thing is our job is to deal with the minimum standards set by the housing code as far as what isn't happening in that building for the people living there and the conditions are still bad. none of these -- you heard the testimony that it takes time. how much time does it take to renovate rooms on a program basis to move people into renovated rooms. we have not been able to see that one of those has been completed. the schedule, i don't know what the schedule is, but it's not being done in a way to address the concerns and the living

conditions of the people in the building and that is why staff believes that an order of abatement is a fair and prudent action to take to encourage the property owner to continue what they need to do in this building. thank you. >> okay. also move we should ask questions now or wait until the comments are finished. >> i would like to hear the rebuttal from the appellant. >> when was the last time your inspect or was there? >> our inspection regarding the task force inspection was mid to late february. >> so you have not had anybody out there since? >> we have other open cases where we have had inspectors out there because there is other notices of violation because they don't have the correct number of bathrooms. in this case that is the last time because it's scheduled through

the city attorney. >> in february it was the last time? okay. that's all i'm interested in. >> may i respond? >> no. >> actually it's time for the appellant's rebuttal for final say. >> there is 3 minutes total for rebuttal for whoever would like to speak. >> my response very quickly is, first of all the lead, yes. that was an abated. that is why we hired the contractor to do that. that shows we took care of the job and were pro active. the other occupied rooms we are in the process now to transfer them from those rooms to new rooms and the order of abatement simply will cloud the title. this leaves us in a

position where we have trouble borrowing if we want to take money out to use it for the building. it doesn't serve any purpose to do any order at this time. we are happy to work with staff on this and inspect or in housing and have periodic inspections we have no problem with that. is that we need more time. it makes hence, particularly in the fact that we have these active permits. it just makes sense. thank you. >> i have a question, commissioner? >> so there is a couple of questions under question of when you might transfer some of these occupants, i would like to know do you have a deadline. the other question i had was because of the make-up of this hotel which is partially an sro

residential and partly taurus, i -- tourist. how many of the rooms for tourist is renovated. the owner is doing the work but just on the tourist side and representing the rooms and not dealing with the sro side that is a financial disincentive to move quicker. >> that is not the case. the whole building is being done in a methodical way and there is no favor of tourist rooms over residential rooms. i think the keypoints is we are very close to completing the rooms where at the present tenants can

move into clean rooms. we are looking at 2 months for that. now, mind you, many of the problems for the rooms that are occupied are not interfering specifically with their district istrict day-to-day lives. for example, the doors are all functional. the sink is functional and plumbing is functional. everything is just being upgraded. i think it's beneficial for the board to wait and have another inspection and come out and we would be

pleased to give a tour. looking back ward is a depressing thought. looking forward is we need to get this building fix done so the whole building is really the way one of these hotels should be operated. >> mr. lee? >> yes, i would like to hear more about your plans for the rooms under renovation with the occupants right now. can you tell me how you are handling the inspection with the tenants for the construction? >> my name is chiu. i was brought in recently. i'm a structural engineer. this building was bought by the hotel brothers. it's the first building in this city. they want to keep it. the 20 year

lease ends. since the father passed away, the brothers take over and the building is in a mess. they make a decision. instead of fixing it, what the department cited, they want a total renovation. what they are doing is they are putting new electrical, new plumbing, new window, new door frames, instead of just patching up and new floor. by the time they finish, the building will be fixed. i was also instead of running around the whole building, let's do it in a stage. i advised them to take the whole thing in the 4 phase. the first phase is to take care of the existing tenants first. they put carbon monoxide

detectors also. the first phase is finish some rooms to move the tenants in. by the time they move in, it's like a new unit. that takes about 8 weeks. and they will do a second group of 20-25 rooms so at least you have a bench mark and you can check on them first with a group at a time. and that will take another 4 months for other group. and they will do some new bathrooms and all thachl . so instead of running around they can do a group at a time and do the whole thing. this is all i have to say. >> thank you. >> do you have any questions? >> i would like more details about that. i understand you are moving people from room to room as they are finished.

what's the progress then at this time? >> that's the first phase. i wanted to ask as of today, of the 78 guest rooms none of them are ready? >> we are running around doing little here. >> are there which of the 78, any of the rooms are they ready? >> none of the rooms are currently 100 percent ready. about 30 rooms are about 80 percent finalized and within the 2 months we can finalize the 30 rooms and move the tenants into those rooms. are we doing the tourist rooms? there is no designation in which rooms are tourist. we are

fixing these rooms so these tenants can shift over. >> there is 24 rooms being occupied, you are trying to if i can 30 rooms that are incomplete? >> yes. >> okay. >> i'm sorry, can i ask questions. the plan is once all 24 rooms are ready you are moving tenants. >> we can immediately shift people over to finish out . the way these rooms are set up is the plumbing lines runs vertical, setting up 6 rooms per floor. we are trying to finish 4 of these rooms so when we finish we can shift the whole section. >> who is dealing with the tenants to deal with the

logistics of moving that when the blocks of rooms are ready? >> at this point no one is. >> i see. >> the operator is going to work with the tenants on this. >> is the operator totally cognizant of the construction? >> yes. he's there everyday. >> you said earlier in your comments that maybe we can move people as we go along. is there an actual plan for blocks of rooms that will be finished and specific tenants to move to those rooms? is there prioritization? is there a plan? >> our plan is because these rooms are so scattered in a way that we could not take out a whole block second, -- section. we are going to move strategically where we are able to renovate more rooms rather than specific. >> when you have an occupied

buildings, the needs of the tenants maybe different than your needs to maximize your schedule. i'm wondering where is that plan an how it fits into your plan. it seems to me still a little bit sketchy so i'm wondering if someone can answer, the lessee here or are you guys speaking for them? >> mr. -- is here. and he maybe able to answer. >> thank you. >> my name is -- they did work on time. this is all inspect or signing, plumbing inspect or and building inspectors and electricity. the inspectors.

almost >> mr., the question i was asking is not about the violations, it's about what your plan is to move people to the new renovated rooms after they become available. what is your plan for coordinating with the contractor to ensure the needs are being met. i'm not asking about the violations. i'm asking about your plans. >> i'm doing a one sign, the parking side. we finish the -- if we do 90 percent done in the one side of the rooms. i already give new tenant room, they have sign it. room 101, room 109, 111. they have new room. on the left, 21