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The West Berkeley warehouse, declared a fire hazard by city officials, could have a potential buyer who wants to preserve the building as a live-work space for artists. 

The Northern California Land Trust has inquired about the property, said Executive Director Ian Winters. 

“There have been a number of tenants and residents who have approached us to see if it were possible to purchase the building,” Winters said. He added that the agency would need more time to determine if it might make a bid. 

Meanwhile the owner of the Drayage warehouse, at the corner of Addison and Third streets, said he would declare bankruptcy should the city make good on its promise to charge him to post a fire company outside the building. 

“I’m not a developer, I don’t have deep pockets,” the property owner, Dr. Lawrence White, a physician, said in a Friday interview. 

At the urging of city councilmembers and the more than two dozen warehouse residents, city officials last week extended a 15-day evacuation order from April 1 to April 15, on condition that White pay roughly $5,500 a day for a fire company to safeguard the building. 

White had previously agreed to sell the building to developer Ali Kashani for $2.05 million, but the deal fell through after Kashani learned there were residential tenants. An address confirmation inquiry by Kashani led to a fire inspection that found 255 code violations at the property. 

At a Friday meeting with his tenants, White suggested that Kashani had used his influence with city officials to send building inspectors to the site because he knew it wasn’t up to code. “I think Kashani wanted to bring down the price of the building,” White told his tenants. “He just wanted to steal it.” 

Kashani, the former head of Affordable Housing Associates, rejected White’s charges. “The city doesn’t follow my orders,” he said.  

White said he thought the city’s demand that he pay for the fire company was a pressure tactic for him to sweeten the deal for tenants to leave the building by April 1. At Friday’s meeting he offered to pay for hotel rooms for each of them for two weeks beginning on the first, but the residents remained adamant that somehow they would find a way to stay in their homes. 

“This is not going to happen in Berkeley,” said Claudia Viera, a resident who runs a mediation business out of her loft. “I see a lot of opportunity to fix a lot of the issues the fire marshal is concerned about, while allowing people to live here.”  

But Deputy Chief Orth, who also serves as the city’s fire marshal, said that ultimately the tenants would have to vacate. “The way the living spaces have been constructed, there’s a huge fire risk,” he said. “This is the type of building where we would lose a lot of firefighters.” 

On the list of violations, the Fire Department was especially concerned that several of the tenants used propane stoves, had built multi-story residences without proper railings, and set up welding shops next to living spaces. 

Although the City Council cannot overturn a decision of the fire marshal, Councilmember Kriss Worthington, noting that Orth had initially wanted the warehouse evacuated immediately, said he saw some potential wiggle room for the tenants to remain. “When the community expresses concerns, there is always some flexibility,” he said. He added, however, that he not yet seen any workable solution to keep tenants at the building past April 15. 

White, who bought the warehouse for $1.08 million in 1997, owns other East Bay properties, according to county records. In 2000 he bought a medical building on Webster Street for $1.125 million. In 1999 he paid $850,000 for a commercial property at 759 San Pablo Avenue. In 1998 he purchased an office building at 1307 Solano Avenue for $290,000. 

After White and his former wife, Michelle J. Schwartz, divorced in 2003, she assumed sole ownership of a mixed-use building at 1700 Shattuck Ave. that the couple bought for $1.375 million in 1999. 

White said he stands to pay more than $75,000 in fire expenses should the tenants remain at the warehouse through the 15th. If tenants stay past the deadline, the city could choose to continue billing him for the fire company and fine him an extra $2,500 a day. 

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