For a while after a fire devastated a historic Red Hook warehouse, the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition — one of the building’s oldest tenants — hoped they would someday return to their space. They, along with dozens of artists and small businesses, thought their displacement would be temporary.

But in November, they got bad news. The damage was worse than had been anticipated, and the building will likely be uninhabitable for years. BWAC’s lease was terminated, as were many others.

The building’s owner, The O’Connell Organization — now headed by Gregory O’Connell Jr. after the death of his father — had charged most tenants below market-rate rent in order to keep artists in Red Hook, said BWAC President Alicia Degener.

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