Fried responds to "Free building" prank

The Daily News has a followup to the "free building" story. Apparently, the owner is not very happy about the prank.

"People were calling all day," [Moses Fried] said. "I couldn't get through to my office."

[...]

Fried, who was fined by the city for running a hot sheet hotel in Clinton Hill ... ultimately scrapped his hotel plans for 205 Parkside, citing "community unrest."

"Community unrest" - ha!  That's a funny way of saying that the community didn't want a whorehouse.

Meanwhile, Fried maintains that he's got plans to turn the building into a 20-family building "sometime soon." According to city records, the building is currently listed as having only 14 residential units. In 2006, a lawyer for Fried told Planet PLG that the income from 14 residential units would not offset heating costs and taxes. 

Whether this hypothetical renovation would require a zoning variance (the building is currently R7-1) or be built higher is a question we'll leave to someone with a better understand of building code. I wouldn't get too worked up about it yet, though.

(Photo: Jeff Wilkins/Daily News)