How Suite It Isn't

Since the Gotham residential hotel was converted into the Vantaggio contract suites early this year, half the building's long-term tenants have left, many under threat of eviction. The rest live in a tenant-landlord soap opera and wonder how much protecti

A A A Comments By Lisa Davis Wednesday, Aug 6 1997

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"It's kind of remarkable that there could be such a dramatic difference from just last February."

A new mailbox roster posted inside 835 Turk St. lists the new tenants of Vantaggio Suites separately from the old Gotham tenants. The roster tells more than mailbox assignments. It's indicative of the state of affairs at the former Gotham.

There now are two different worlds existing simultaneously inside the building. Vantaggio Suites offers full-service, furnished rooms, virtually identical to the operation in San Diego, except for the price:

A single room rents for $800 a month. Larger rooms with twin beds rent for $1,100, which is to say, $550 a person with the required double occupancy (management books roommates). Maid service and breakfast is provided for the new Vantaggio Suites residents. The phone lines in the renovated rooms are connected through a central switchboard. The former manager's apartment is now a community kitchen and computer room, for the exclusive use of the new tenants.

Meanwhile, about 40 of the original tenants of the Gotham continue to pay their old rents, occupy old rooms in an otherwise new building, and wonder what's going to happen next.

"I can't help but think that, logically speaking, the new rents would argue that we're on our way out," says Marsteller. "I'm certainly feeling like they would be happy if we left. And from their economic standpoint, I can understand why."

Indeed, were this virtually any other city on the planet, the events at the Gotham during the past six months would not have raised an eyebrow. Were the Itos still in San Diego, the conversion they have wrought would have caused no legal problems whatsoever -- that city doesn't even have an agency that oversees property management. But this is not any other city -- a fact of which the Itos are now keenly aware. In fact, it's easy to get the impression that had she known how much bureaucracy, litigation, and politics would descend on Vantaggio Suites, Claire Blouin-Ito would never have come to San Francisco.

"France, socialist country, is not like this," she says.