Community Board 1’s Land Use Committee denied the Warren Street Hotel’s request to add two partial floors to their building — a plan they presented first last fall and will take to the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals next month.

Their decision hinged on the fact that the neighbors at 80 Warren just to the east came in force to document damages to their building that have not been fixed — two years since the hotel opened. The coop residents said that the hotel’s “aggressive” excavation — the original plan was to dig several stories feet below grade — caused their building to sink half an inch. The Department of Buildings shut down construction at the time and the hotel’s contractors reinforced 80 Warren’s west facade.

The 80 Warren residents also said that scaffolding installed on their roof and improper connection of drains damaged their building, causing flooding in units. In addition the building has had to make repairs itself, passing those costs onto residents, three of whom are over 90. And while community board members did not want to get into a classic case of “he said, she said,” they would not green-light the hotel’s request.

“I don’t want to hear it until the neighbors are made whole,” board member Rosa Chang said. “The fact that you are not respectfully engaging with your neighbors is very disturbing to me… At the very least you can cover the damages.”

The hotel has applied to the city for a variance to add an extra 2900 square feet of space on the roof, surrounding the current mechanicals, to accommodate more residences, a fitness center and screening rooms — a plan that was rejected by the Department of Buildings last July but is now being brought before the Board of Standards and Appeals.

In its filings with the BSA, the hotel said its annual return is a *negative* 31 percent as a percentage of cost — it cost $86 million to build and its value, they claim, is $59 million. With the added spaces on the roof, the value would increase to $90 million. The reason? The entertainment component that is most important to its financial viability — screening rooms, meeting rooms, a fitness center, “spaces that are universally expected from hotels” — was supposed to be in the cellar, and when the excavation failed, that eliminated those features.

Land Use Committee members said their resolution would reflect that the hotel did not resolved the damages it caused to neighbors. However, they added that if the hotel comes to an agreement with the neighbors and they have a plan where the new construction will not affect their building yet again, the committee would consider a different resolution.

The hotel would need to let the committee know before the resolution comes before the full board on March 24.

“We’re not asking for millions of dollars,” one resident of 80 Warren said, “we just want our building to be fixed without it costing us money.”