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More than two dozen tenants of a West Berkeley live-work warehouse that was declared “an extreme fire and life safety hazard” will be able to stay in their homes for two extra weeks under the protection of the Berkeley Fire Department, the city’s fire marshal announced Thursday. 

Under political pressure, city officials extended an order to vacate The Drayage, a warehouse at Third and Addison streets, to April 15.  

A fire inspection earlier this month found 255 code violations at the property, including propane tanks for cooking, untested gas lines, stoves and heaters installed without permits and insufficient access to exits in the event of a fire. After the inspection, city officials sent the landlord a 15-day evacuation notice, demanding that all residential tenants leave by April 1. Commercial tenants have been allowed to remain. 

The extension will not come cheap for the property owner, Dr. Lawrence White. The city is requiring that White pay for a three-person engine company around the clock at the warehouse beginning April 1. The cost is estimated to run several thousand dollars a day, said Deputy Fire Chief David Orth, who also serves as Berkeley’s fire marshal. White faces $2,500 a day in fines if he does not evacuate the building by April 15. 

Orth said the extension came in response to the requests of City Councilmembers and residents of the Drayage. He said he is requiring the owner pay for fire department surveillance because he wasn’t comfortable allowing residents to remain in their homes. 

“This is an extremely hazardous situation,” Orth said. “If a fire starts in the building, I don’t feel we could stop it. I don’t see any option of making the structure code compliant.” 

The city has ordered White to post a 24-hour-a-day security guard at the warehouse. White did not return telephone calls for this article after the city announced the extension Thursday evening. 

The residents, most of whom are artists with attached studios, said they appreciated the reprieve, but planned to continue to fight the pending eviction. 

“I want a solution that lets me stay in my home with my neighbors,” said Maresa Danielsen, who has lived at the warehouse for eight years. 

Additionally the City Council will receive a staff report on the property at their April 12 meeting. It could choose to discuss the warehouse at the meeting, but does not have the power to overturn a decision by the fire marshal, Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan said. 

Some residents questioned the timing of the city crackdown 24 years after artists first moved into the warehouse. The building is up for sale, and Orth said that the inspection was prompted by a request from developer Ali Kashani for an address verification. Kashani has since withdrawn his offer to buy the building. 

Understanding that a vacant building is worth more on the open market than an occupied one, residents charged that by evicting them the city was serving the landlord’s interests. 

“Why is the city assisting a landlord who has failed to provide a safe space and stands to make millions from our eviction?” said Claudia Viera, who has lived at the warehouse for 10 years. 

Orth said the Fire Department hadn’t been aware that the building was also a residence and that past fire inspections had only looked at commercial spaces and common hallways. “It just came up on the radar in the last few weeks,” he said. 

According to a city report, during the early 1980s the warehouse was apparently subdivided into 28 multi-use, multi-level units without city permits. Residential gas, water and electrical lines were also installed in the units without permits. 

White, who bought the building eight years ago, said in an interview Thursday morning that he had it inspected before closing and was told it was up to code. A recent electrician’s report found no major problems with the wiring, he added.  

White said he never considered the financial benefit he stood to reap by the evictions when he put the building on the market several months ago. “I never looked at it that way,” he said. “I assumed that any future owner wouldn’t do anything with it for a few years.” 

White said he has lost money by operating the property, and had a deal in place to sell it to Kashani for $2.05 million.  

Kashani, the head of Memar Properties Inc., said he canceled escrow after he found out about the residents. Should the city go ahead with the evictions, Kashani said he still might bid on the property. He had considered tearing down the warehouse to build lofts or townhouses. 

If the tenants are forced out, under city laws they will be entitled to a lump sum of $200 and moving expenses, plus the difference over three months between the rent they paid and $1,395, the average city rent for a one-bedroom apartment. 

Because the property is zoned commercial, White doesn’t have an obligation to find new quarters for artists and crafts tenants as he would under the West Berkeley Plan if the property had been zoned for manufacturing or light industrial. 

Residents said they knew the building wasn’t up to code, but thought that it could be made safe without evacuating them. “If they installed a sprinkler system, upgraded the electricity, installed railings, that is all stuff that can be done,” said Jeffrey Ruiz, furniture maker, who pays $1,375 for an apartment and workshop at the warehouse. 

“There is nowhere else in Berkeley I can get that kind of deal,” Ruiz said. 

The residents’ pleas made a strong impact at the City Council Tuesday. 

“It would be a terrible misjustice to let these individuals bear the full brunt of this while the landlord gets to sell his building,” said Councilmember Max Anderson. 

Should residents remain past April 15, Orth said the city could choose to keep billing the owner for the engine company. “If it’s just a couple of tenants we might have to make some hard choices about evacuating the building,” he said. 

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