City Raids Makeshift Airbnb Cabanas On Brooklyn Rooftop

DUMBO, BROOKLYN — After months of neighbors complaining to the city, agents from the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement headed up to the roof of the industrial brick warehouse at 140 Plymouth St. this month and raided a set of makeshift, low-budget cabanas being rented out on Airbnb as "cozy" private rooms with "skyline views of the city."

The five rooms had been illegally constructed, they found, and were being serviced by "dangerous and unpermitted gas and electrical hookups." Agents also found no smoke alarm or safe way to evacuate in case of a fire.

The building owner, Plymouth Realty Corporation, has since been slapped with $10,000 in fines — a debt that could quickly climb to $55,000 if the rooftop rooms aren't vacated immediately, according to the city.

Airbnb host Isaac Amar, meanwhile, apparently avoided punishment. Amar did not return calls, texts and emails for comment Thursday.

Amar works for Seret Studios, a location-scouting business that rents out dozens of local venues to movie and TV producers looking for classic nouveau-Brooklyn film sets: lofts, warehouses, factories, basements, tunnels, terminal buildings — even a waste transfer station. A promo pic on the Seret Studios website for the rooftop at 140 Plymouth shows the same little black shacks Amar's been renting out on Airbnb. They can also be spotted on Google Street View. (Screenshot below.)

As for the unlucky Airbnb guests from Massachusetts renting out Amar's makeshift cabanas when city inspectors arrived:

One was photographed still in bed in a shocked state of partial undress, his personal belongings strewn around the room and the window shades drawn. He and two others were also interrogated by inspectors about how long they planned to stay, how much they were paying per night, etc. (The answer to that last one: between $125 and $150, according to the city. Which is admittedly a pretty dope price for a private room in DUMBO, however shoddy its construction and shady its disposition.)

Reviews of Amar and his listings on Airbnb are for the most part quite glowing. A recent guest from Germany said:

"This place is awesome. The look you have towards Manhatten is stunning. In the area around you get what you need. Everything is pretty close. Isaac is a super nice host. A superb place to stay while you are in NYC! One thing is to mention. If you have a light sleep you might need earplugs because of the Manhattan Bridge."

And one from San Diego said:

"This was a perfect New York experience with an excellent rooftop view of manhattan and situated in the midst of the Sunday flea market and walking distance to the best bagels and pizza in Brooklyn! The decor and access to laundry after an unexpected deluge of rain gave us a safe refuge to recoup from long travels."

But Christian Klossner, head of the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement, said the host “showed an astonishing disregard for the safety of visitors to the city."

"These rooms, on the roof of a manufacturing building in DUMBO, offer one more example of how dangerous illegal rentals can be," Klossner said in a statement sent to Patch.

Peter Schottenfels, a spokesman for Airbnb, declined to address the debacle at 140 Plymouth St. in particular.

However, the spokesman said in a statement, "Safety is our top priority and we have many steps in place to ensure our hosts provide a safe environment for their guests. The overwhelming majority of New York City hosts share their own home occasionally to earn a little extra money; those are the folks we're fighting to protect."

Both the Airbnb spokesman and city officials made sure to stress, though, that the May 11 bust was carried out under longtime city construction rules, not the new state law cracking down on Airbnbs and other short-term online rentals. (That's because the brick building at 140 Plymouth, which houses a construction company and some storefronts, is not zoned as residential, and therefore isn't covered by the law.)

That said, there has been no shortage of busts under Gov. Andrew Cuomo's so-called "Airbnb law."

Around 17 listings have been raided and their issued some 150 city violations since the law was enacted late last year, mayoral spokeswoman Melissa Grace told us via email. Of those listings, 11 were posted on Airbnb.

Photos courtesy of the NYC Mayor's Office