When Luxury Turns to Poverty: Fired 2116 Chestnut Workers Rally to Get Their Jobs Back

After $160 Million Sale, Luxury High-Rise Kicks Workers to the Curb

Philadelphia – August 6, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Joined by dozens of supportive tenants and union members, fired building workers at 2116 Chestnut will rally in front of the building on Wednesday at 2:45pm. With almost no notice, building cleaners, security officers and maintenance workers were terminated from their jobs at 2116 Chestnut Street on Friday after the 319 unit residential apartment building was sold to CBRE Global Investors for $160 million.

Joined by tenants outraged by the decision, the workers (members of 32BJ SEIU) are now fighting to get their jobs back. The workers have delivered petition signatures from a majority of tenants, and have visited CBRE’s headquarters and Greystar, the property manager’s office. With no response from CBRE or Greystar, the workers are prepared to take dramatic measures to get their jobs back.

With rents starting at $2,750/ month, 2116 Chestnut is a model of luxury development in Center City. Built in 2013, in part by labor union money and $20 million in state funding, the building was hailed by Mayor Nutter as a vehicle for good jobs in the city. Just two years and one real estate transaction later, the living wage building service worker jobs are gone.

WHAT: Fired Workers Rally at 2116 Chestnut St.

WHO: 

Speakers include:

Terminated Workers

2116 Chestnut tenants, including John Bolaris

Ben Waxman, Center City Resident’s Association

WHEN: Wednesday, August 5, 2015 2:45pm

WHERE: 2116 Chestnut Street, PhiladelphiaWorkers will march from 1515 Market to 21st and Market, down 21st to 2116 Chestnut

VISUALS: drums and banner

With 145,000 members in eleven states and Washington, D.C., including 22,000 in Pennsylvania, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country.

Contact
Traci Benjamin; 215-300-0776;
Julie Blust, 215-713-6777;