{"id":245444,"date":"2026-05-27T19:08:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T19:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/245444\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T19:08:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T19:08:34","slug":"nyc-rental-sues-ground-floor-church-for-leasing-its-space-to-a-barbershop-bar-and-night-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/245444\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC rental sues ground-floor church for leasing its space to a \u2018barbershop, bar and night club\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a house of worship \u2014 but not everyone is acting holy inside.<\/p>\n

The owner of an East Village rental building is suing the Christian Pentecostal church at its base for leasing space to a \u201cbarbershop, bar and nightclub,\u201d according to a new lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The condo board of managers at 183-189 Ave. B \u2014 divided into a 40-unit, seven-story rental building, Hub Avenue B, and a ground-floor bilingual church, Elim House of Worship \u2014 alleges the nonprofit religious organization violated its agreement by failing to inform the board about the tenant, and bringing in a non-church-related entity that hosted \u201cunruly crowds and outrageous, drunken behavior,\u201d per the Manhattan Supreme Court complaint.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cThe<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church Unit has gained a reputation for unruly crowds and outrageous, drunken behavior,\u201d the suit claims, allowing \u201cboisterous and intoxicated patrons to congregate in and around the Condominium.\u201d stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

Despite complaints, the behavior continues, the suit claims.<\/p>\n

The church space is only lawfully permitted to house \u201ca religious facility with ancillary religious, charitable or community purposes,\u201d court documents indicate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears that during the day, instead of devoting the Church Unit to religious activities, Tenants operate a commercial barber shop,\u201d according to the suit. \u201cThen, during the after-hours, the Church Unit becomes a \u2018club\u2019, where hordes of people converge to consume alcohol and listen to loud music.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September, Elim Pastor Carlos Torres sued the tenant, Real LES LLC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to sue them to get them out of there because they were not paying rent,\u201d Torres told The Post, claiming that he gave them a one-year lease but they surreptitiously \u201cchanged it to five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Residents<\/p>\n

Residents at the Hub Avenue B, at 185 Ave. B, have complained about the drinking and the noise coming from the church\u2019s tenant on the ground floor. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

Real LES LLC, run by Joquin Lugo and Cristina Montanez, signed paperwork that they would hand back the keys by noon on Tuesday in exchange for a $15,000 payout, per Torres, who runs the church with his wife, Pastor Kristine Torres. As of 3 p.m. they hadn\u2019t yet handed them over, according to Torres.<\/p>\n

Montanez \u201cwas so nice and so respectful until we got into this legal battle and then she takes out her nails and became a very nasty person,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

Montanez didn\u2019t return a call for comment.<\/p>\n

The Torreses own the 15,000 square feet that house church operations, representing 25% of the property, Torres said. Hub Realty owns the other 75%, or the 66,000 square feet of residential space.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The board at 183-189 Ave. B is suing Elim House of Worship over the latter\u2019s unruly tenant. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

Real LES LLC signed a lease in October 2024 to occupy Elim\u2019s 600-square-foot offices on the ground floor at 183-189 Ave. B for a monthly rent of $3,000, Torres said, which was \u201cjust a donation for the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI rented to some people in the church who visited it to have a hub so people could receive packages,\u201d Torres said. \u201cThat was the first understanding we had. They were going to make a barbershop and we were going to serve homeless people as the ministry of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, \u201cthey\u2019ve been doing parties and smoking weed [there] without my permission,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Elim<\/p>\n

Elim House of Worship is a bilingual Christian Pentecostal church. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

Torres said he understood that the board, led by president Jared Lustbader, had to file a lawsuit against the church and the tenants.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did what he had to do,\u201d Torres said. \u201cI have to defend myself. The truth is I did not rent that to be a party, but with the best intention to do a ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lustbader and his attorneys didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a house of worship \u2014 but not everyone is acting holy inside. The owner of an East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[95891,95896,95890,95894,9,95895,56,35913,63,65,64,95893,95892,3323],"class_list":["post-245444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-carlos-torres","tag-church-unit","tag-elim-house-of-worship","tag-house-of-worship","tag-new-york","tag-nonprofit-religious-organization","tag-ny","tag-ny-post","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-pastor-kristine-torres","tag-pentecostal-church","tag-stefano-giovannini"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}