Illegal Rego Park Hotel Vacated By City For 'Perilous' Conditions

REGO PARK, QUEENS — On booking websites, the Alderton Hotel in Rego Park touted its proximity to Citi Field, LaGuardia Airport and the Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the U.S. Open kicks off later this month. Reviewers called the rooms clean and a great value.

There was just one problem, city officials said: It was illegal.

The city on July 30 ordered the owners of 63-21 Alderton St. to vacate the entire property, because conditions were "imminently perilous to life," building department records show.

The buildings department hit the owners with 23 violations last month for not providing required fire safety measures, like fire alarms and sprinklers, and doing renovation work without a permit.

The renovations included adding wall partitions to the building's basement to create six bedrooms, records show. The owners created a total of 12 furnished "hotel" rooms in what was once, legally, a single-family home with a basement-level medical office.

Each room had a key-locking device, according to the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement, which handles issues related to illegal hotels.

Naveed Siddiqi, a lawyer representing the building's owner, said the property fully complies with city administrative codes. He declined to name the owner, saying that this article would "affect his work."

"These are purely allegations at this point," Siddiqi said by phone.

It's unclear when the hotel got up and running, but positive reviews hit booking websites starting in May.

At the end of January, just a few months before the reviews started flooding in, a shell company called Alta Capital Fund LLC bought the building for $1.87 million, real estate records show.

Alta was set up by Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management's Fernando Massaro last August, according to state corporation records.

Reached by phone, Massaro said the city's assertions are allegations and not necessarily fact.