Protest Against Evictions Above City Hall Restaurant by Barry Owens "Henry Meer, wipe that sneer, don't evict the artists," they were chanting outside of City Hall Restaurant July 22 in hopes of making diners uncomfortable and embarrassing the owner-chef who is attempting to evict the tenants above his eatery . Meanwhile, as those tenants facing eviction from their lofts at 131-135 Duane Street worked up a few more rhymes, a public relations specialist hired by the building's owners quietly pulled reporters aside, countering the groups claims with a "fact sheet" of her own. Cheri Fein, senior vice president of Rubenstein Associates, said the firm had been hired by Duane Street Realty but she was not a spokeswoman for the group and refused to speak on the record. The sheet called Meer a "minority partner" of Duane Street Realty, which is seeking to rid the building of its long-time loft tenants, gut the structure and possibly turn it into a condominium hotel. It did not mention that financier and philanthropist Martin Gruss and his son Joshua are Meer's partners. "There is no pleasure in going through a process such as this," Meer said in a statement handed out by Fein. "I take pride in being an active and community-minded member of the Tribeca/City Hall neighborhood, both as a chef and restaurant owner and as a resident and family man. The sad reality is that this building needs to be upgraded, and we believe that full demolition of the interior space is the right way to go. We attempted to work with the tenants to come to a reasonable settlement, which, unfortunately, wasn't successful." Duane Street Realty is seeking approval from the state's Department of Housing and Community Renewal to evict the tenants through a provision in the rent stabilization law that allows for evictions when the owner intends "to demolish all of the apartments located in the subject building." Tenants and their supporters, which include the lobbying group Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants (LMLT) say the demolition is a phony angle taken by the owners to force out the tenants, who would otherwise be protected from eviction. "They've cooked up a big loophole," said Bill Hall, co-chair of the LMLT. "This is a landmarked building and by definition cannot be demolished. Really, what they're trying to do is get rid of the tenants." "To misuse of the law, to pretend that a rehabilitation is a demolition, is a disgrace," said Assemblywomen Deborah Glick. "The Mayor should be fighting for all New Yorkers. The HDR should disapprove this application because it's phony." Duane Street Realty counters in its statement: "This is not a loophole or a loose interpretation of demolition. Neither is this a new interpretation of law. Over the past two decades the courts and DHCR both have found in numerous cases that demolition of an entire interior of a building is sufficient. The outer walls do not necessarily need to be demolished." Glick helped organize the protest attended by Councilman Alan Gerson, Councilwoman Christine Quinn, a representative of State Senator Martin Connor's offices and dozens of supporters. And of course, the tenants, most of whom have lived in the building more than 25 years. "I was raised here," said 27-year-old Jesse Devine, now a Queens resident whose father, Jed, lives in the building. "For Henry Meer to try and kick my dad out of the place where I grew up seems obscene," he said. Protesters, confined to a pen on the street, inched as close to the restaurant as they could. The restaurant is known for its "power breakfasts" attended by high-level city officials. "In support of tenants here and in my district, I have moved all the lunch and breakfast meetings I used to have here to someplace else," Quinn said to applause. Shortly before the protest began, Amanda Burden, chairwoman of the city's Planning Commission, was handed a flyer stating the protestors position, then strolled into the restaurant.