A dispute between record store owner Jack McAdams and his landlord — Alderman Al Paolillo — ended with eviction papers, but not before the ceiling collapsed.
On Thursday morning, a court-ordered mediation hearing put an end to a months-long dispute between McAdams and Paolillo over 1464 Ella Grasso Blvd., a building near the corner of Whalley Avenue and the Boulevard. The property is owned by Paolillo’s real estate company, S&G Gigi, LLC, and is the home of McAdams’ store, the DJ Outlet.
McAdams (pictured holding pieces of his collapsed ceiling) had been withholding rent, contending that the heat was not working and that water leaking through the roof had demolished his drop ceiling.
Paolillo had the city Health Department on his side, and McAdams was told to vacate the premises by April 15 for failing to pay rent.
Paolillo will not be seeking payment of the back rent, an amount of $6500 according to the alderman’s attorney.
McAdams’ store, DJ Outlet, sells records and CDs and rents out speakers and other DJ equipment. McAdams, known by the nickname “Blue,” is a DJ as well as a shopkeeper. He said he had been at the location for almost nine years without trouble, until the roof started leaking last year. Water damage caused his suspended ceiling to cave in on Dec. 1 last year.
“It was a drop ceiling, and it dropped,” McAdams said, stepping into his store after opening up one recent morning. He proceeded to the back office and pointed to the spot where his ceiling fell onto his desk on Dec. 1. Shortly after the collapse, McAdams removed the rest of his drop ceiling, revealing a tin ceiling above, marked by several large holes.
McAdams said that the building’s property manager had eventually repaired the leaks in February, but that it took five months of complaining, during which time McAdams was living with buckets in his store to catch the drips.
Paolillo’s sister, Anissa Cappetta, is the property manager for the building. Paolillo’s corporation, S&G Gigi, LLC, was described by its attorney as a “small real estate company” that owns one or two properties.
On top of a leaky ceiling, McAdams said, his store hasn’t had heat for four months. He pointed to a small electric heater mounted on the ceiling. Although it puts out a little heat, most of it escapes through the holes in the ceiling, he said. A thermometer in the store read 56 degrees.
“We pray for days that are warmer,” McAdams said. His business has suffered because of the lack of heat, he said; customers won’t stay in the store, saying “Blue, man, it’s so cold in here.”
McAdams said that the water in the toilet bowl has frozen. He has photographs of pans of frozen water in his store, where he had caught ceiling drips that then froze inside.
McAdams said that he called the Health Department and that inspectors came and told him to stop paying rent and start recording the temperature inside. Flipping through a calendar, McAdams read off a week of recent indoor temperatures, ranging from the 30s to the 40s. He said there has been no follow-up from the Health Department.
Meanwhile, McAdams’ complaints to Cappetta haven’t made it any warmer.
“She tells me, ‘You have heat, pay the rent,’” McAdams said. He said that he hasn’t paid his $1100 rent in two months.
Health Department: No Problem Here
Alderman Paolillo, a Democrat who represents the Annex neighborhood across town on the East Shore, declined to comment on the matter, referring questions to his lawyer, Attorney Tim Gunning. Gunning’s story differed from McAdams’.
Gunning said that the rent has been unpaid since October, not just since January. McAdams said that he had paid up until January, but that Cappetta asked for the rent in cash and didn’t provide a receipt, so he had no record of his payments.
The attorney also said that the holes in the roof had been repaired promptly, and that there was no problem with the heat.
“My understanding is that the heating system is fully functional,” Gunning said. “He’s just not turning it on.”
Attorney Gunning said that the Health Department had visited the building twice and found no violations.
“The attorney’s correct,” said Paul Kowalski, New Haven Health Department’s environmental health director. “I was there last Wednesday.”
“The tenant just shuts the heat off,” Kowalski said. “He didn’t want to pay the electricity is what he told me.”
Kowalski acknowledged that the building’s roof was uninsulated, but said that “the complaints are unfounded, at least from a health department perspective.”
The DJ acknowledged that he has shut the heat off, but only after it was clear that the heater was ineffective. He said he figured there was no point in wasting electricity on a useless heater. “Even when I leave the heat on all day and all night, it’s still freezing in there,” he said.
Blue Moves On
Contacted after the Thursday morning mediation session, McAdams was resigned to his fate as an evicted tenant. “I’m all right, I’m not going to jump off a building or anything,” he said.
McAdams said that his lawyer didn’t show up for the mediation and before he knew it, the meeting was over and he was being evicted. “I had nobody to talk for me,” he said. “I had no real say-so in it.”
Attorney Gunning said that McAdams had freely agreed to the terms of the mediation and could have asked for a continuance if he had wanted to have a lawyer with him.
“Maybe it’s time to move on, I don’t need the headache,” McAdams said, explaining that he has his eye on a new Whalley Avenue storefront, near Burger King.
“This place,” he said, “is going to be fabulous.”