New owner of 3 troubled Crown Heights buildings has 1,400+ hazardous violations elsewhere, THE CITY reports

The landlord the Mamdani administration picked to rescue three of Brooklyn's most neglected rent-stabilized buildings has a long record of hazardous violations at his own properties, THE CITY reported Thursday.

The deal the city celebrated

On Sept. 3, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the sale of 1018 Eastern Parkway, 1074 Eastern Parkway and 1392 Sterling Place in Crown Heights, 88 rent-stabilized homes, away from the Dukler family to Mark Schwartz. Rubin Dukler, who routinely ranked among the city's worst landlords, died in 2021, Bisnow has reported. The three buildings had nearly 1,000 open code violations and were in the Department of Housing Preservation and Development's Alternative Enforcement Program, which targets the city's worst buildings. HPD and the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants said they would work with tenants and the new owner on repairs.

The city will help finance the rehab, which is expected to cost in the ballpark of $10 million, Bisnow reported, and the buildings are to be held by a housing development fund corporation under closer HPD supervision. The Dukler Tenant Union, which had been organizing since 2018, reached a deal with Schwartz for repairs with tenant oversight and a path to a tenant-owned co-op.

What THE CITY found

• Violations: Schwartz and his partners have more than 1,400 open hazardous or immediately hazardous housing code violations across the 28 buildings they own or manage, according to an internal city document obtained by THE CITY.
• Lawsuits and repair bills: HPD has sued Schwartz or his partners 15 times in the past four years to force repairs, and the document says they owe the city $1.3 million for repairs HPD's contractors had to make.
• A Bronx example: At 3569 DeKalb Ave., a 54-unit building near Woodlawn Cemetery that Schwartz has owned since 2018, there were 268 open hazardous violations as of Nov. 2, including citations in August for rats and mice, broken smoke detectors and mold.
• Crown Heights, again: At 2044 Bergen St., about a mile from the Dukler buildings, Schwartz took full control on Oct. 1 after years as a small partner. HPD sued the owners last month over 92 open violations in 16 units and alleged they had falsely certified repairs, accusing them of turning deferred maintenance into "a profitable business model," THE CITY reported.

What Schwartz says

Schwartz, who is also the mayor of Teaneck, N.J., told THE CITY he was "embarrassed" by conditions at the DeKalb Avenue building. He said buildings run by partners and outside managers had not been kept up as well as the ones he handles himself, and that he recently took direct control of 11 buildings to support the administration's preservation push. He said his team had "made great progress" on open violations.

What it means for tenants

HPD is the agency that will oversee the Dukler buildings' rehab. Tenants who live in a Schwartz-run building, or any rent-stabilized building, can check open violations and complaints by address on HPD Online and report conditions to 311. The mayor's office has not said whether the findings will change its oversight of the Crown Heights deal.