For decades, the Bossert has served as a hostel for Jehovah's Witnesses stopping off at the global headquarters here, but as they are moving upstate and getting rid of all their property, developer David Bistricer stepped forward in May to turn the Bossert back into a boutique that still bears the same name it has for nearly a century.

He recently said that the hotel would not be under the banner of any national chains, and he is partnering with the mysterious Joseph Chetrit and the guys behind King & Grove, all of whom are working on the controversial conversion of the Hotel Chelsea.

The designer behind all this is none other than Gene Kaudman, also hard at work on the Chelsea, who has designed dozens of hotels around the city in recent years, mostly for those name-brand outlets Mr. Bistricer now eschews. Mr. Kaufman will be lucky on this project, considering the Witnesses, famous for the meticulous upkeep of all of their properties, have left the architect with an immaculate lobby, which renderings show will be little changed.

Upstairs, the story is different, with the number of rooms rising from 224 now to 300 suites when the renovations are completed. No idea what those will look like, but there has been talk of a rooftop bar overlooking the Heights, the harbor and the Manhattan skyline, which ought to be something.

“The Hotel Bossert is an exceptional building and one that should be open to welcome guests from across the country and around the world," Mr. Kaufman said in a release about the renovations. "Brooklyn has not only seen a residential explosion but thanks to a cultural coming of age the borough has also become a tourist destination yet it remains underserved by hotels."

With the boom in Brooklyn hotels, especially in one of the borough's poshest redoubts, this ought to be a perfect fit.

A bright(er) future for the historic hotel? (B*2, flickr)

The residents of the Chelsea Hotel may still return to their mold-infested, dust-filled rooms this evening, but it will be with the glow of victory.

After failing to get the historic hotel's new owner Joseph Chetrit to negotiate an agreement to repair the decaying building's moldering walls, asbestos-filled airshafts and crumbling plaster, the tenants took the sidewalk yesterday in front of their building yesterday, along with a phalanx of politicians, to declare that they were ready to take the matter to a housing court trial.

The Chelsea Hotel Tenants Association, which filed a lawsuit against the Chetrit group to force the group to rectify unsafe conditions in the building last December, finally got its agreement today in housing court, said tenant attorney Janet Ray Kalson.

"It's done!" announced a jubilant Ms. Kalson Monday afternoon. "The main thing was that they needed to be put under order. Now there's a very detailed time for repairs to the building. We're very pleased."

The agreement also includes steps that the Chetrit group—which purchased the building for $80 million in August 2011—must take to protect the building's approximately 100 remaining tenants from hazardous debris, steps like sealing off construction areas and monitoring air quality, as demolition and renovation work to turn rooms in luxury accommodations continues.

The attorney for the Chatrit group, Fred Daniels, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Ongoing construction is likely to be a fact of life at the famed West 23rd Street haunt of artists, musicians and writers. Besides the room-by-room transformation from a shabby bohemian residence to posh suites, the Landmarks Preservation Committee recently approved a rooftop bar/nightclub designed by architect Gene Kaufman. Although the building, which is already too big for its lot, may face an uphill battle to get city approval.

The agreement is very similar to "final" one that tenants and the Chetrit group negotiated last month, Ms. Kalson said, with only a few minor changes. The landlords' decision to renege on that deal at the last moment, insisting on yet more changes, is what prompted residents' to seek alternative avenues to improve their living situation, she said.

But given the many promises of improved conditions that the Chetrit group has broken over its brief time as owner, did Ms. Kalson think a court order would finally do the trick?

"We shall see... to be continued," she said.

City Council speaker Christine Quinn hailed the agreement, calling it "a new day for the residents at Chelsea Hotel, whose call for action has been heard at last," while vowing continued vigilance.

"We’re going to watch this landlord like hawks to make sure the letter of this agreement is followed,” Ms Quinn wrote after the decision was reached.

But yet another important question remains to be answered: Does this mean that the Patti Smith concert will finally happen?

kvelsey@observer.com

The building's famous exterior (melfoody, flickr)

Sunday morning in front of the Chelsea Hotel, a crowd of eccentrically-attired, artistic types milled about the sidewalk while a scrum of reporters and local politicians scrutinized a collection of photographs propped on easels.

A passerby stopped to gawk. "What is this, an art show?" she asked.

And the now infamous interior

It was, in fact, a press conference, at which tenants and politicians announced their shared dissatisfaction with the ongoing disrepair of the building, and their intention to engage in a bruising legal battle if no agreement is reached Monday in housing court.

For an update on today's housing court decision>>

"We are here, unfortunately, to address how far the Chelsea Hotel has fallen. The Chelsea Hotel, once symbolic of all that Chelsea and the West Side had to offer, has fallen into disarray," said City Council speaker Christine Quinn. "Mold covers its walls and  asbestos literally lurks in the airshafts, rust is deteriorating cabinets and sinks and appliances. The landlord has done nothing, less than nothing, to improve these conditions."

The residents of the Chelsea have spent the last six months focusing their energies on the decay and demolition that have taken hold  since Joseph Chetrit purchased the historic edifice for $80 million last August.

The housing court date is the latest stage in a battle that had been raging since last summer, when Mr. Chetrit's gung-ho renovation set loose hazardous debris that had been hidden behind the walls for decades. Asbestos and silica dust particles filled the air. Pipes burst and mold spores colonized the walls and ceilings. Rust dripped from the faucets of the landmarked building, and life suddenly became very unpleasant for the remaining 100 (many of them rent-stabilized) tenants.

Politicians expressed their outrage, vows were made, agreements were hammered out, Patti Smith planned a free concert in the hotel, but was asked not to perform by residents who were worried she was performing at the behest of the new owner. (Ms. Smith, her efforts unofficial and uncompensated, who insisted that her only allegiance was to the Chelsea Hotel and agreed not to perform).

Months passed, the mold and decay continued to spread, eviction actions moved forward against a number of residents, negotiations failed and the tenants had finally decided that either the Chetrit Group would sign the agreement that they had reached earlier or they would demand a trial.

Built in 1896, the red brick building, the former haunt and home of many an artist including Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith and Sid Vicious and Leonard Cohen and Charles Bukowski, has often been a little down at the heels (as you might expect of a place known for its lenient, rent-bartering policy. In Just Kids, Ms. Smith wrote about having to let the water run for awhile so that it didn't come out brown). However, according to Ms. Quinn and others, the current state of decay is advanced and not due to benign neglect, but work done quickly, carelessly—and with little consideration for the people living in the building. (Chetrit is said to have classified the building as "unoccupied" when it applied for the building permits).

"This is what happens why an owner puts the rights to make a lot of money over the right of tenants to live peacefully," said assemblyman Dick Gottfried (the roster at the press conference was an impressive one, especially for a Sunday morning, but then, mold is seldom so glamorous).

The Tenants Association filed a lawsuit in December demanding Mr. Chetrit fix unsafe conditions and comply with safety and environmental regulations by removing hazardous materials.  Since then, the tenants have agreed to extension after extension, concession after concession, but the Chetrit Group kept moving the goal posts, said the tenant's attorney Janet Ray Kalson.

The lawyer representing the Chetrit Group did return requests for comment.

Coming on the heels of Landmarks Preservation Committee late-April approval for the construction of a massive rooftop bar/nightclub atop their historic hotel (a move that shocked many, especially since Landmarks had ordered architect Gene Kaufman to resubmit a more realistic proposal earlier that month), the last failed agreement proved to too much for residents.

"The landlords have delayed, obfuscated and stonewalled by refusing to enter into an agreement that would protect tenants' rights at the Chelsea," said Zoe Pappas, president of the tenants association, who took The Observer on a tour of some of the building's more unsavory spaces.

"The personnel has been very forthright in seeming to promise to do things. It's just the fact that they don't," said painter Mary Anne Rose-Gentry, speaking from the window of her 8th-floor apartment crowded with paintings done by her and her late husband Herbert Gentry, old copies of Art in America, a flaking ceiling and crumbling tile and plaster knocked loose by the damp beneath the walls and the force of nearby demolition work.

The apartment looked defeated, the 8th-floor hallway looked defeated, and Ms. Rose-Gentry looked especially defeated. "I can't be a hardy camper anymore," she said. "Can you imagine collectors coming here? People used to love to come to the Chelsea Hotel and get a peek."

On the way out, Ms. Pappas pointed out that the hallway, and the plastic sheeting over the doorways of rooms where work was being done, was actually an improvement, her high-heels clicking past a (thankfully) empty mousetrap.

In the 1st-floor single-room apartment of John Knoernschild, a dapper retired composer and pianist, conditions were even worse. Upon opening the door, a cloud of swampy odor hit The Observer, with mold wafting from the cracked walls and tile. A huge hole  gaped in the ceiling. The bathroom's electricity had cut out, so Mr. Knoernschild had rigged up an extension cord light-bulb of the sort construction workers use.

"You'll see that some of my solutions are pretty primitive," said Mr. Knoernschild with an impish grin.

He seemed happy to play host in his tiny apartment. (As two other tenants talked about the similarly-tiny apartment they shared, he edged gracefully into the conversation. "Excuse me, he said, leaning forward eagerly on his cane, but I must interrupt for a joke. The apartment was so small that they had to get married.") He clearly loves the kitchen-less 250-square feet of space where he's lived for the past 30-years.

"Every time I want to get to something I have to move something else," said Mr. Knoernschild with obvious delight. "They were trying to get me to move for $10,000! You can't find another place for that."

As miserable as it was to live with a huge moldy hole in one's apartment and a bathroom without electricity, Mr. Knoernschild said that he'd certainly enjoyed some aspects of the fight.

"I've been living here for 30 years and I'm suddenly meeting residents I've never met before!," he marveled. "I think it's really brought us together."

And even with a housing court battle looming and the Chelsea rendered nearly unlivable with noxious debris, the residents seemed to take some comfort in the fact that the building was, at least for the time being, still theirs. A bland luxury hotel might be taking shape behind the plastic sheeting, but at the moment, the Chelsea is about as far from luxury as you can get.

"The building has a life of its own. It's been a magnet for artistic and creative people even before it was built. You can't just rip the guts out of this building and turn it into a nightclub for Bridge and Tunnel people," said Brian Bothwell, a filmmaker photographer who lives in an apartment once occupied by both Leonard Cohen and Grace Jones. "You can buy the Chelsea Hotel, but you don't own the Chelsea Hotel, the Chelsea Hotel owns you."

kvelsey@observer.com

In light of Hotel Chelsea's application for building a swanky rooftop, Curbed took us back in history to the time when board members kicked out the hotel's manager Stanley Bard. Gothamist interviewed Mr. Bard and received a tour of the hotel five years ago, and my how much it has changed.

The hotel was purchased by the mysterious Joseph Chetrit who plans to transform the beloved building. The biggest obstacle was Mr. Bard who the board isolated and pushed out in 2007. He was the largest resistant against changes, especially since his father purchased the building in 1939, and Mr. Bard cultivated its personality and character over the decades.

Mr. Bard claims to have built an "mutual admiration society" between him and his residents. So much for all that.

A rendering of the renovated hotel, with new windows and a penthouse. (Real Deal)

The mysterious Mr. Chetrit. (DNAinfo)

As readers of The Observer know, Joseph Chetrit might be the most secretive big-time developer in a city full of the type. The guy owns part of the Willis Tower, for God's sake, and still nobody really know who he is.  Oh, and as of not to long ago, the Chelsea Hotel, which he is thoroughly mucking about in. Well, his minions are, since Mr. Chetrit has never publicly been seen at the hotel.

But he did make an unexpected appearance at a local community board meeting last night, to defend ongoing renovations, including a penthouse he hopes to add to the landmarked hostel. According to DNAinfo, Mr. Chetrit said little during the three hour meeting, though he eventually broke in near the middle to make his case for the project.

He says the move wouldn't harm the historic structure — or the dozens of angry hotel residents also at the meeting. "Nobody's looking to hide anything," Chetrit said.  "We're working full time, very hard, to give you the best product."

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

I'll crash whenever I want.

After releasing a statement on Wednesday outlining why she was still going to perform for the tenants at the Chelsea Hotel—despite their wishes—Patti Smith changed her mind and pulled out of the performance shortly before she was due onstage last night.

However, even though she bowed to the pressure and cancelled her Thursday performance for the tenants railing against her, The Architect's Newspaper reports how she still did performed at the hotel this week to a crowd of media and art folks, a private performance for the hotelier on Wednesday. It seems the revered Ms. Smith has suffered from a serious bout of flip-flopping on the issue, which now appears to have been grossly ill judged, leaving her contradicting herself.

Her statement on Wednesday read:

"My allegiance is to the Hotel itself, and I have done nothing to tarnish it."

Last nights cancellation statement read:

"My motivation was solely to serve the tenants."

"If you want to give a concert for us great,  but chose a neutral venue, one where Chetrit will not be sponsoring you." Wrote 16-year Chelsea Hotel tenant and editor of the Living with Legends blog, Ed Hamilton, before the gig got cancelled.

Ms. Smith originally said she wanted to perform in order to "communicate directly" with the tenants. Now, everyone loves a good musical, but it seems she could have saved herself a whole lot of time communicating through the old fashioned way, or as we like to call it: talking.

This whole episode is a music pun dream (note how we've smartly avoided 'people have the power'... well until just now). It seems Neil Young was onto something when he said, "music can't save the world." Heck, it can't even save someone from eviction.

sduffy@observer.com

It won't be the same, will it? (PBS)

Patti Smith has come out in defense of her imminent gig at the Chelsea Hotel, releasing a statement that includes bullet points underlining her reasons for organizing this Thursday's soirée. "My small performance for the tenants was my own idea." She said, distancing herself from any collusion with the owners, "My hope is that we might have a nice evening and the opportunity to communicate directly."

Having gone through a series of major identity crises of late—mainly due to it's new owner the Chetrit Group—the iconic Chelsea Hotel is becoming more synonymous with eviction notices and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommendations, than with it's housing of literary and musical giants of the past.

The catalog of changes new owner, the real estate developer Joseph Chetrit, has spearheaded, have been too much for some to take. From the removing of artwork that adorned the walls for decades to filing of eviction cases. Most recently these hazy disagreements have come to a head in court over the botched and protracted effort to renovate.

Last December the Chetrits were told by a housing court judge to clean up renovations, after a report found samples that showed 10 to 40 times the recommended lead safety levels in the air. The case is due to go back to court on the 20th, with the tenants battling over which companies are hired to check their apartments for damage.

With that in mind, one could be forgiven for suspecting alternate motives for the timing of Thursday's private gig. But Ms. Smith, who has had stints living in the Hotel in the 70's, 80's and 90's is adamant that she is not a pawn, "I am an independent person, not owned or directed by anyone. My allegiance is to the Hotel itself, and I have done nothing to tarnish it."

Oh to be a fly on the wall on Thursday night... Ebay anyone?

Charming! (DNAinfo)

As if living inside of a construction site were not bad enough, your home denuded of its famous art and filled with hundred-year-old dust, it appears the renovations to the Chelsea Hotel could be making those still living there sick—at least that is what the boarders are arguing to DNAinfo, and they have hired an outside health probe to make their case.

Tenants are concerned that the building, constructed in 1884, is so old that dangerous building materials could inadvertently be released by workers during renovations. The final results from the environment assessment should be available within the next few days, Himmelstein said.

"I cannot make speculations, but I know when I breathe the air, I don’t feel comfortable," said Zoe Pappas, an engineer and artist who lives in the hotel. "We could see the dust, we could see the debris coming through the elevator and through the lobbies."

This may just be the tenants waging their latest war against the difficult and mysterious Joseph Chetrit, but when you see the video of the renovations, they're sort of hard to argue with:

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

"We will fall," sang the Stooges. (The Real Deal)

When Joseph Chetrit bought the Chelsea Hotel, there was widespread fear of what would become to the grand old dame. Would she lose her quirks and charm, the characteristics that made this The Chelsea? The Real Deal got a look around the redbrick behemoth on 23rd Street recently, and it looks like the answer is a definite yes.

In the past few days, the demolition has begun in earnest. Workers have gutted the east wing of the building's seventh floor, an area once inhabited by novelist William S. Burroughs and actor Ethan Hawke, residents said. A visit by The Real Deal yesterday revealed that walls, doors and fixtures have been removed, leaving piles of wood and debris in their place.

The problem of missing art at the Chelsea has been a longstanding one, something the hotel's house blog, Living with Legends, has been cataloging for some time, including these photos of a denuded lobby. Given that architect Gene Kaufman had called the project a "subtle" renovation, it's good to know he can be so soft with a sledgehammer.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Here are a few others.

tacitelli@observer.com  ::  Follow on Twitter @tacitelli