KINGSTON – City officials announced on Friday a court ruling by Acting State Supreme Court Justice Henry Zwack, upholding a decision by the Kingston Zoning Board of Appeals, which denies a special use permit for a Victorian house on West Chestnut Street, in the city’s affluent 9th Ward.
The premises at 106 West Chestnut Street, operated by Tri-Serendipity LLC, rented rooms to approximately 15 tenants throughout the past year, in violation of a court injunction limiting the occupancy to roughly half that number.
Tri-Serendipity’s managing partner, Joseph Sangi, made headlines recently, accusing city officials of harassment, whenever they attempted to enforce numerous fire and zoning violations – such as renting rooms on the third floor of a wood-framed structure.
Litigation against the city attempted to establish grandfathered rights to run a rooming house. Historically the building was a nursing home, which grew to eventually host about 40 mentally ill patients, before being closed by former Mayor Shayne Gallo under his Nuisance Abatement Law.
Sangi is no stranger to controversy. Prior to acquiring control of 106 West Chestnut in late 2014, he made national news for a felony conviction. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office convicted Sangi, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2005, after he was caught bilking clients through a phony drug rehab facility racket. Officials seized over $340,000 in stolen funds. At the time, he went by the name San Giovanni. Prosecutors referenced similar offenses in the State of Florida.
In Kingston, five tenants on the third floor, and three tenants on the first floor, inhabited rooms in violation of permitted occupancy. Sangi faces charges of disorderly conduct for falsifying zoning permit applications, plus civil and criminal fines.
A news release issued by Mayor Steven Noble’s office on Friday said the site will be posted next week, with the illegal tenants relocated by workers from the Ulster County Department of Social Services.
In court affidavits, Sangi claimed to have purchased all interest in Tri-Serendipity from two other partners, Timothy and Patricia Wheeler of New Paltz, for $500,000. Mr. Wheeler disputed that statement last month, in a telephone interview. “We do have an interest; I’d love to know what’s going on with it,” Wheeler said, adding he was unaware of the illegal occupancy. “I’m pretty much in the dark about what’s going on.”
