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The owner of an illegal West Berkeley live-work complex has broken off negotiations to sell the building to a public trust and is moving ahead with evicting tenants, according to his attorney Bill Berland. 

Lawrence White, owner of the Drayage Warehouse, will serve his remaining tenants with eviction papers possibly by the end of the week, Berland said. 

After negotiations with the Northern California Land Trust broke down last week, White hired Berland to replace attorney Don Jelinek, who refuses to litigate evictions. 

“White doesn’t want to evict, but he’s got two guns to his head,” Berland said. “The city is ordering him to evict and the tenants are saying we won’t leave.” 

Berland confirmed that White is now asking $2.7 million for the property. The land trust, according to tenants, had offered in the neighborhood of $2.05 million, the same price for which White two months ago had agreed to sell the property to Developer Ali Kashani.  

“It’s really unfortunate that somehow the price has gone up $700,000 in a matter of weeks,” said resident Marisa Danielsen. “If he was going to sell it to Kashani for $2.05 million why won’t he sell it to us?” 

Under a deal with the land trust, current tenants would have been given the option to purchase their units after they were brought up to code. 

Danielsen said she and many of the 16 other remaining tenants intend to fight eviction proceedings in hopes of pressuring White to reenter negotiations with the land trust.  

Berland said White was seeking fair market value for the property and that Kashani “would have been getting the property for a bargain basement price.” 

Kashani has said he pulled out of the deal after learning that the warehouse had residential tenants. His request for an address verification while he was in negotiations prompted city building officials to focus their attention on the property. 

Last month Berkeley Fire Marshall David Orth declared the warehouse a fire hazard and ordered the building evacuated by April 15. Since the deadline expired, the city has fined White $2,500 a day for failing to comply with the evacuation order. Orth has also ordered White to post two security guards at the site at White’s expense. 

The tenants and White have filed separate appeals to the fire department’s evacuation order. 

Berland said he was researching city law to determine if the circumstances of the case would allow White to serve tenants a three-day eviction notice. Such notices are typically issued for cases in which tenants have violated their lease. Otherwise, he said, White would have to serve 60-day notices for tenants who have resided at the warehouse for more than a year and 30-notices for newer tenants. 

So far about 14 tenants have moved out said Claudia Viera, a tenant. She added that White had offered tenants $7,000 to vacate their homes. 

If residents fight the eviction notices, Berland expected litigation to last at least a few months. Should White prevail, Michael Caplan of the city manager’s office said, Berkeley police would not evacuate the building. 

“Ultimately it’s the owner’s responsibility,” he said. “If it came down to it they’d have to bring in county sheriff’s deputies.”