The Department of Buildings has ruled in the lengthy holy war between Chelsea's General Theological Seminary and its neighbors over whether GTS can operate a commercial hotel in its Desmond Tutu Conference Center at 180 Tenth Avenue. And? The DOB gave the okay to the commercial hotel with a temporary C of O in November, Chelsea Now reports. The Tutu Center's director says the non-profit is "still committed" to using the hotel mostly as a conference center. Still? Still: an earlier agreement allowed the center to operate 60 guest rooms for those affiliated with the church or attending conferences on-site. The center interpreted the agreement...creatively, operating those same guest rooms as a full-service hotel and taking reservations from the public through Expedia and Hotels.com until the center's official campaign to go commercial began in the spring. Neighbors remain up in arms about the precedent the DOB's ruling sets for non-profits to operate commercial hotels, and about how secretively they think the DOB and the Tutu Center have handled the whole thing. What can we say? God works in mysterious ways, Chelseaites.
· Seminary's prayers answered as hotel opens to public [Chelsea Now]
· Illegal Chelsea Hotel Trying to Go Straight [Curbed]
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