Metro

Inside Hotel Toshi

Williamsurg’s Hotel Toshi has quietly grown into a popular destination for international tourists who want to stay in Brooklyn in a furnished apartment for as little as $100 a night.

The company has grown since its humble beginnings in 2001, when company President Robert Chan purchased and renovated a building on S. Eighth Street. He expanded his company by leasing apartments in several small Williamsburg buildings and renting them at nightly rates to a primarily international clientele.

But his interaction with tenants in rent-stabilized buildings convinced Chan to approach landlords of stalled condominium projects with his business plan.

At Hotel Toshi’s flagship at 808 Driggs Ave., the company manages about half of the building’s 35 units, while the other half are occupied by tenants with one-year leases.

The Department of Buildings visited the building dozens of times, investigating complaints about too many transient guests in Hotel Toshi. So far, the city has issued 25 violations for construction work without permits and all of them have been resolved.

But in the wake of several raids Williamsburg in March, Chan is concerned that the city could try to close one or more of the 18 buildings where his company operates — not that he thinks such a closure would be warranted.

“The city shuts down hostels because there is a danger to human life or they are not up to code,” said Chan. “My buildings do not pose any danger to human life.”

Not everyone agrees.

Long-term tenants at 808 Driggs have been mobilizing to pressure their landlord to kick Hotel Toshi out after complaining of raucous, late-night parties by the hotel’s guests.

At the same time, Brooklyn Legal Services and Los Sures took the landlord of a rent-stabilized building on S. Fourth Street to housing court after tenants threatened a rent-strike due to mold, utility problems, and the presence of a Hotel Toshi unit, which allegedly violates the city’s housing laws.

“Hotel Toshi is taking advantage of the situation,” said Legal Services attorney Jessica Fischweicher. “He knows. The addresses on his Web site don’t tell you where the building is. They’re hiding.”

Yet the international guests who stay at Hotel Toshi have mostly positive reviews on sites like TripAdvisor, saying the experience was “the best deal for my family” and its staff was “very helpful with questions,” particularly in the wake of “the volcano issue.”

A typical Hotel Toshi unit is spacious and fully furnished, with maid service like you’d find in any hotel.

Guests check in at a centralized office located in the basement of 808 Driggs before being dispatched by a local car service company to one of the hotel’s buildings.

If Chan has his way, and if the city backs off, more buildings could be on the way.

Eight years ago, it was a struggle to manage a few units in a six-story dilapidated building. Now, the owners of six different small condominiums are approaching him to launch a branch in their stalled and vacant buildings.

“They want me to be there for short term rentals before they can sell their units,” said Chan. “They’re trying to keep from being foreclosed upon and get as much money as they can so they can keep their head above water.”

ashort@cnglocal.com