I'm here, but I don't know if anyone can hear me.
We hear you, Mr. Sokolov.
We can hear you.
You've already been sworn.
Just for the record, state your name.
Oleg Sokolov on behalf of Gymnast Limited Liability Company for 2821 West Lehigh.
Ms. Cummings, you start first.
What's your position?
Well, we had an agreement with the attorney representing at the time due to not having submitted certain requested documents, and there was no community attendance, that they would agree to a continuance, which is what we expect to do today.
So that was our understanding.
Okay, Mr. Sokoloff, could you give me your position on this?
Sure. Our position is that that was not our understanding.
Ms. Cummings stated that she would be continuing this.
We took issue with that given that we complied with all requirements for notice.
There was no request for any documentation to be submitted prior to the meeting by the RCO of Strawberry Mansion.
There are no stated guidelines for submissions.
And we were prepared to present the fact that there was no attendance is not something that we're able to control.
Are you prepared to go in today?
We are.
okay so what i'm going to do we we mr bergman we had that was an agreement and an understanding of
the attorney that represented from them the attorney mr bergman is my associate i spoke to
him right hold on hold on hold on mrs cummings let me let me tell you what we're going to do
we're going to go on would it take his testimony and hold the vote and then he can we can figure
out later about additional meetings or whatever but i'm not we're not going to vote on today we're
just going to hold the vote he has his client here let them go on and we'll go from there okay
and you know obviously you could if you want you can come on and object or do whatever you want
when i when i call but i'm going to hold the vote so that we can figure out where we are with this
if he's got somebody here they're going to go on okay so i'm going to call this in about 10 minutes
thank you both mr chair um mr sokolov has requested actually that we we call this case
first because he has a time commitment shortly. I know, but let me get through the rest of the
cases. No, no, no. Yes, I know we still have a couple other cases, but I mean right at first
once we get to the regular list. Thank you. So number one, MI-2023-002-691-7014 Woodland Avenue,
This case has been withdrawn. Number two, MI 2024-004-237-2826-28 Belgrade Street.
No exhibits first listing. Sean Ward is the attorney.
There has been no RCO meeting.
Is Mr. Ward's hand?
Not in the audience this evening.
he's not there no sir okay so mi 2024 004 237 28 26 to 28 belgrade cases continued mark must be heard
we're going to go back to mi 2024 004 350 28 21 wesley hi mr sokoloff please
Mr. Sokoloff, just for the record, state your name again.
Good evening, members of the board.
Oleg Sokoloff on behalf of the applicant Gymnast Limited Liability Company for 2821 West Lehigh Avenue.
And Mr. Chair, I do appreciate the indulgence.
I have an RCO actually at 6 p.m.
and i'm the only one on their schedule um our vice chair has a few questions sure
good afternoon good evening counsel do you agree to waive the reading of refusal or
stipulate to its accuracy good afternoon mr shaheed yes i do have you emailed in all the required
Good afternoon, Mr. Shahid. Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents five days in advance of this hearing?
back in this
I have.
Thank you, council. Please receive.
Thank you very much, members of the board. It's nice to see you again.
I will run through the exhibit packet briefly, but this is simply a use request to use the property for the purposes of visitor accommodation.
This is a single-family residence located in RSA 5, and again, we are just seeking to use it as visitor accommodation, which is not in conformity with the requirements of RSA 5.
My clients have owned this property since 2020, have done substantial renovations to the property, as you will see, have attempted to rent it with market rate and below market rate and have been unsuccessful in doing so and are seeking to use it for the purposes of visitor accommodation.
now believing that this neighborhood does not have much hotel accommodation or any other kind of
accommodations for for visitors of any sort and this would be a revitalization of this block
this neighborhood they've put a lot of money into the property as you'll see from the interior
pictures and you will also see that we have over 20 letters of support from nearby neighbors for
this use so if i could just quickly take you to the pictures
you can see that the property was nearly completely renovated
this is the basement of the property
a complete renovation of the kitchen brand new stainless steel appliances brand new cabinetry
brand new floors and we really believe that this property would be well well used in the
neighborhood as the neighborhood as i stated has has very little to no hotel accommodations and
People really use these properties for family coming into town, for celebrations, for graduations, for births of children when people are in town for long extended periods of time.
This is the exterior of the property here.
It is this property here.
this property. A view down Lehigh Avenue and you will see that this property is also very
close to a number of commercial use properties including CMX2 which is right across the street
of the entirety of the block or half of the block there. So we also believe that bringing visitors
to this neighborhood could bring potential beneficial financial impact to other businesses
in the neighborhood, which, as the board knows, struggle somewhat in generating income.
So this would potentially be a boon on some of the existing businesses in this neighborhood.
Our application for appeal, our project information form, we did notice all the neighbors, and
I'll show the certificates of mailing for a meeting on October 28th.
And there were 147 nearby neighbors that were noticed.
My clients also prepared some proposed house rules that would deal with some of the issues
that we know could be existent at Airbnbs potentially, no parties, certain regulations
regarding pets. The amount of people that could stay in this house is reduced way below what
this house could potentially support. And then our letters of support.
This is on the immediate block, neighboring block, also neighboring block, and I'll show a map so the board can get a sense of how much work the applicants did do and how much community outreach they did do to garner this support from so many neighbors.
This is a neighborhood with a lot of vacancy. This is a neighborhood with a lot of empty lots. This is a neighborhood with a lot of, I will say, inappropriate uses of housing.
I will say, inappropriate uses of houses, some houses that are boarded up and have some nefarious uses to them.
So we really believe that the operation of a well-run Airbnb or visitor accommodation location would really, as I've been stating, bring some revitalization to this block.
again neighboring block
immediate block
and just to give i won't go through them all but just to give a board a sense of
how many people in the immediate vicinity of the property let alone in some adjacent parts
of the neighborhood. They really, Ms. Williams, who will come online and adopt my testimony in a
moment, can give you a little more context on how much they really went around the neighborhood and
ensured that people are supportive of this, regardless of the fact that we were not able
to get much attendance, or any attendance for that matter, at the RCO meeting itself.
at this time if I may bring Miss Katrina Williams on just to adopt my testimony please
and then we'd be happy to answer any questions the board or anyone else may have
Miss Williams yes can you hear me or could you state your name and spell for the sonographer
Katrina, K-A-T-R-I-N-A, Williams, Watson, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S, Watson, W-A-T-S-O-N.
For a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Good evening, Ms. Williams.
Hello.
Ms. Williams, you are one of the members of Gymnast Limited LLC, correct?
Correct.
And have you heard my testimony here today?
I have.
And do you adopt it as your own?
I just want to, how much time would you say you and your husband spent walking around
the neighborhood knocking on doors to get letters of support?
Oh my goodness, hours.
And not only to get the letters of support, while we were renovating, the neighbors were
coming up to us and thanking us and looking out for us.
They'll call us.
We gave them our phone numbers.
They called one day because a screen door was open and they thought the main door was open and we were able to come down.
The neighbors in the neighborhood have been extremely supportive of the project.
OK, is there. Can you tell the board a little bit about the types of renovation that you did there and what condition the property was in prior to you beginning the renovations?
OK, prior to the renovations, the property looked like it hasn't been renovated probably since the original owners had bought the property.
um we did a complete reno um from the basement to the roof um as you see the basement was
totally we have marble floors in the basement brand new wooden floors oak throughout the home
um we have the exposed brick like the stainless steel appliances um the furniture top of the
line. We really wanted to make it a luxury stay. So anyone who comes and visits our city
will not only be able to enjoy the city, but to definitely be able to enjoy the accommodations.
Okay. And is it correct that you guys have attempted to rent this property as a long-term
rental and have been unsuccessful in doing so? Yes. Because it is a luxury property and everything
that went in it, we couldn't find appropriate tenants to put into this property.
Okay, and the size of the property, how many bedrooms, how many bathrooms?
One, two, three, four bathrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and four bedrooms.
Nothing further. Thank you, board. Any questions from the board?
Questions from the board.
Yes, I have a question. Have you used it as a, rented it out already as a visitor accommodations?
no only let family my husband and i and i have stayed there we let my niece and my nephew stay
there for overnight that's it we have not rented it out okay and and and all of your um canvassing
did you happen to talk to the neighbors that are immediately adjacent on both sides yes um my
husband is actually someone knew him from like growing up in their neighborhood right very next
door he's very supportive um and both neighbors have been supportive on both sides
thank you questions for the board yeah i have a question one um ideally what rent would you be
Ideally, what rent would you be hoping to receive? And two, if you've had such a hard time renting it out, what makes you think that this is viable as a short term rental location for people who might be visiting the city?
hoping to receive and
typically when people want to stay someplace they want to stay in town or downtown where other
things are this is not necessarily the most transit oriented place uh nor is it the most
tourist centric so i'm just curious as to how you see this okay well we're not far from the
dell um which we plan to market it as being close to the dell close to downtown close to temple um
um it is kind of an ideal an ideal spot we're about 10 minutes away from city line avenue
um a lot of people when they want to when they come to visit they come to visit and they come
to spend money and they would like comfortable accommodations and for the people who don't
necessarily want to be in a hotel who would like to be in a home i think it's a perfect place it's
very homey it's very comfortable it's top of the line i think people will really enjoy being there
with their friends and their family um i think it would be a i think it would be a staple in
philadelphia i honestly do and when the people come to visit they plan to spend money so instead
of maybe paying a hotel fee they'll pay for the airbnb and it'll be worth it
and then what was the what was the rent that you were oh we're like ideally i'm we're thinking
about six hundred dollars a night um because we do want a certain quality of person so we're not
going to go you know we don't want to bring in the people well airbnb does a great job of kind
of shifting those out but we want to bring in people who you know make decent money um and
will respect the property yeah but that's the short-term rental rate i was asking like if it
had been rented, what was the rent
that you were helping for?
Oh, $2,700.
$2,700.
Other questions from the board?
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr.
Questions or comments
from the virtual audience?
I do not see any further hands.
Wait a minute, Mr. Chair.
I see a hand from Strawberry National
of community concerns.
Hello?
Are you?
Hello?
Ma'am, yes.
You've already been sworn.
Please comment.
Well, I'm commenting
because, again,
the understanding was that
there would be a continuance today
for one, which was an agreement between the representing attorney.
Mr. Sokolov was not present, therefore was not privy to the understanding that took place
between the representing attorney.
Also, we had no information that was shared with you today to be able to, as the committee,
which was present on the call, to make further decisions regarding whether this was acceptable
or not.
A lot of these renovations, although now have permits, started without them, and they start with the presentation to L&I as though people live in these places and they're able to do these renovations, like the rooftop deck, which is a concern for the community on this property.
We had no letters of support that was demonstrated at the time of the hearing in October.
These letters of support were done after the community meeting and with many addresses of people who live further than 250 feet from this location.
So we didn't have any, you know, anything that we wanted to have as the RCO also in full dimensions of what is actually in the property.
You know, people show you pictures. You don't really know, you know, what that is.
They could be pictures of anything.
So we asked, there was no presence from all of the, whatever the mailing were, you know, in terms of attendance.