Chelsea Real Estate Battle: Former Owner Seeks to Regain Control

Rarely does a day go by that a passerby doesn’t remark on the bizarre circumstances on the corner property at 210 7th Avenue even as the past owner challenges a city move that stripped him of the property more than a year ago. After a fire set by an alleged arsonist this past April, the city ordered the building demolished.

Now it has been reduced to a vacant lot in one of the hottest real estate markets in the city. And the past owner wants it back.

Erroll Rainess, who spends most of his time in Belgium, claims he was not allowed to bid on the property at the city-run auction which the Department of Buildings initiated because it said he ignored notices to cure numerous building code violations that included lack of maintenance, garbage violations, failure to clear snow and ice, etc. The city also contended that some past improvements, such as adding a sixth floor years earlier, were done without ever obtaining a building permit.

The building was sold at an auction back in May 2025, for $350,000. Some felt was a very low price for a corner plot of land in the booming Chelsea market, even one on a narrow plot that still contained a long abandoned six-story building.

On the day of the auction, Rainess showed up but he said officials would not allow him to bid on the property at the auction. He was escorted from the premises and the building was awarded to a buyer identified as Casey Schear.

Schear is hard to find. He has a post office box in Brooklyn as a business address but no trackable phone number. He has thus been unreachable for comment on the status of his ownership and his intentions for its future.

“This has all been a nightmare,” said Rainess, who claimed the building had a lot of belongings of his as well as his late wife and that he was surprised to learn of its pending sale.

Rainess said he never received the notices and wants the sale voided and the deed for the now-vacant property to be re-assigned to him.

The building once housed a neighborhood coffee shop but by the time of the fire, it was a notorious eyesore that for decades and had drawn the ire of Chelsea residents and local politicians.

If the property’s past was torturous in the past, it became more so when an alleged arsonist, Brittany Babb, set fire to the building on April 12. Babb, 32, was indicted for an escalating pattern of arson, including 210 7th Avenue, which evolved into a three-alarm blaze that damaged adjacent structures. She was also charged with setting two other fires on the East Side. Her next court date is September 30. A now-vacant lot is all the remains of a once quite lovely brick facade that occupied the corner of 22nd Street and 7th Avenue.

Days after the fire, the City Department of Buildings said the structure posed an “imminent threat” to the public and ordered it torn down.

”That building never should have been torn down,” insisted Bradley Silverbush, an attorney at Rosenberg & Estis, P.C. representing Rainess. Silverbush said his client hired an engineer who said the building was sound even after it was gutted by fire.

Raines and Silverbush are seeking a reversal of the order whereby the city seized the property and sold the

Rainess said he always promptly paid all the property taxes over all the years he owned the property and would have fixed the code violations if he knew of them.

On the day of the auction, Rainess showed up but he said officials would not allow him to bid on the property at the auction. He was escorted from the premises and the building was awarded to a buyer identified as Casey Schear.

Schear is hard to find. He has a post office box in Brooklyn as a business address but no trackable phone number. He has thus been unreachable for comment on the status of his ownership and his intentions for its future.

An administrative hearing was held before Judge Kathleen Waterman in the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) on July 1 to address Rainess’ claims that the property was sold illegally. He is seeking to have the administrative order reversed.

Normally, a judge has sixty days to issue a ruling on the merits of the dispute in a matter in the OATH court, but sources say it is not unusual for a judge to take longer than that to issue a ruling. That is apparently what has happened, since that 60-day time frame has elapsed.

The original judge assigned to the case was dismissed. Rainess’ contention beyond the original denial of having received proper notification is that the assessment of the city appointed director of engineering, Philip Ng, was incorrect and fraudulent.

Silverbush claims Ng perjured himself with his assessment that the building, before it was razed, was structurally unsound. While acknowledging there was some damage from the fire, Rainess and his Silverbush insisted the building was structurally sound.

With the building now just a memory, this could prove a difficult matter to litigate. There is no updated information on the website and a clerk at the OATH office was unable to provide any updated information nor indicate a new deadline.

Both adjacent properties on 22nd Street (203 and 205) have been vacated due to water damage and black mold. Tenants have all been forced to relocate. Sam’s Deli, on the 7th Avenue side, also closed, but whether this was a direct result of the fire and demolition is uncertain; that property is still on the market for a lessee.