A bitter tenant-landlord feud ended July 8 after a roof collapse forced residents to evacuate a Cornelia Street rowhouse, which will conveniently clear the way for the owner to begin long-planned renovation work.
Neighbors cite dangerous living conditions in the three-unit building; one called it a "hellhole." According to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), owner Lavender Residence LLC has racked up 42 open violations this year alone, including for removal of building necessities like fire escapes, lights in public hallways, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Dept. of Buildings (DOB) records show that tenants reported the rowhouse multiple times for unsafe living conditions. According to a complaint filed in May, a tenant reported holes on the first floor where the basement was visible — “someone’s foot can go through” — and renovations being done outside of what the work permits allowed. Another complaint alleges Lavender filed an application with the DOB claiming the building was vacant while tenants in fact still lived there and were being affected by ongoing construction.
Lavender Residence LLC, headquartered at 199 Lee Ave in South Williamsburg, has no telephone number but work permits show Building USA LLC has permits to work on the Cornelia rowhouse. Building USA owns the infamous "Ocean Blue Residence" on Palmetto Street, painted in a shocking checkerboard pattern in shades of blue.
A spokesman for Building USA told BushwickBK they don’t know who owns Lavender and that they “just worked together” on the building. But HPD records show Abe Green, who owns Building USA, is also listed as an owner for Lavender. In October BushwickBK spoke with Abe Green, who said he had plans to build a second checkerboard building — with a lavender color scheme. Although Building USA would not say if 85 Cornelia would be the lavender checkerboard building, a representative of Apple Associates, who manages the rentals at the Palmetto building, confirmed it would.
Abe Green refused to comment for this story after numerous attempts to contact him, and the spokesman for both Building USA and Apple Associates claimed the person who had information on the “real owners” of Lavender LLC was "at a work site" and could not be reached.
Luther “Dreads” Smith, a neighbor of 85 Cornelia, told BushwickBK that the owner told him he wanted to “move in yuppies” after everyone was evicted. The building is the only one on the block that is rent stabilized.
“They offered them money to buy them out and only the first- and second-floor tenants took it and moved out three weeks ago,” said Dreads. According to him, the 3rd floor tenants were the sole holdouts and refused to take the buy-out money offered by the landlord.
FDNY determined the building unsafe after the roof partially collapsed shortly after midnight on July 8, forcing officials to boot everyone from the rowhouse and barring anyone from returning. Dreads claims workers were still working on the rowhouse at the time of the accident, which Building USA denies. “This was an unforeseen. We were there to make the building structurally safe,” said the company’s spokesman.
A stop work order currently exists on the property, which is one of a distinct row of Victorian rowhomes built in 1888, a few of which still have their original ornamentation. A glimpse of intact cornice is visible under the current vinyl siding.
The Building USA spokesman said the plans to move forward with the renovations are unchanged; they hope to complete work by the fall on what will be Bushwick’s second checkerboard building. Green had promised more such renovations around the neighborhood in the future.
The whereabouts of the remaining family aren’t known but Dreads said he heard they had moved in with relatives.
"They had kids and the floor was sagging after the collapse," he said. "I wish them all the best, this is a sad situation."
Mary Judge July 21st, 2011 at 8:22 am
whats with the checkerboard ??? is it me or is this just ugly
GP July 21st, 2011 at 10:05 am
This is disgusting: the treatment of tenants in such a manner, the desire to turn an historic building into a ‘yuppie’ eyesore, and the low moral of such building owners and companies. Appalling.
Diana July 21st, 2011 at 10:43 am
To Abe Green and all the other tacky developers in South Bushwich: Please do not paint another ugly check-board building! Since this building is historic according to this article (Victorian rowhomes built in 1888) Just renovate it and keep it CLASSY! PLEASE! This area has so much history and beautiful architecture why ruin it with lavender check boards?
Kristen Shelby July 21st, 2011 at 2:50 pm
I am so glad that you are covering this story! I am a Tenant Organizer and have been working with this building for several months. I would like to clarify a few things.
After enduring months of egregious landlord harassment, including constant visits, phone calls, service cut-offs, etc., most of the tenants in this rent-stabilized building accepted buy-outs and moved. I assisted the tenant in 2L in dealing with an illegal eviction on March 31, 2011, when the landlord changed the locks on his apartment entrance door. After the tenant re-entered his apartment (with police accompaniment), he discovered that his furniture had been broken and documents had been stolen. After the police left, Yaniv Garbo (who apparently works with Abe Green) returned to the building and broke down the tenant’s door. I have pictures of the ransacked apartment if anyone is interested in seeing them.
By June 2011, there was only one occupied apartment left in the building (3L). The landlord did apply for permits to do work in the building, however, he reported that the building was not occupied, which was untrue. He then proceeded to cut off all electricity in the public areas and remove the fire stopping, which resulted in the issuance of a Stop Work Order on June 16, 2011.
Despite the Stop Work Order, the tenants in 3L report that Mr. Garbo and his construction workers entered the building on July 4, 2011 and began hitting the ceiling of the apartment below theirs, which led the tenants’ kitchen floor to sink in. On July 8, 2011, the landlord and his workers returned to the building and began hitting the ceiling of 2L again. When the tenants complained, Mr. Garbo entered their apartment and began to jump on their kitchen floor. He then went back into the apartment below and banged around some more. Soon after, the beam below the kitchen in 3L collapsed. The Department of Buildings issued a Partial Vacate Order and the tenants have been placed in temporary housing by the Red Cross. The tenants and their attorney are working with the court to get the landlord to correct the violations so that the tenants can return to their apartment as soon as possible. Criminal summonses have been issued for Mr. Garbo.
Yesterday, the tenants discovered that their apartment had been burglarized and vandalized. Investigation is still pending, but it seems very suspicious given the circumstances.
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. Many landlords are perpetuating campaigns of forced displacement of long-time residents throughout Bushwick. How do you think most of these new gut renovated buildings scattered around the neighborhood came about? The process of getting from a building full of rent-regulated tenants to a building full of people paying two to three times higher rents (and often their own heat and hot water) is wrought with injustice. I am always shocked with descriptions of Bushwick as “up-and-coming” and articles that glorify fancy new restaurants and luxury condos (such as the recent NYTimes article), ignoring that people’s basic right to safe, affordable housing is being violated every day, all for the sake of some greedy real estate developers’ profits.
Please keep covering this and other stories like it!
Jonathan Mena July 21st, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Kristen could you please contact me at jonathanmena@bushwickbk.com
Brenda Blue July 21st, 2011 at 11:49 pm
Please keep up the noble work, Kristen. You are the lifeline of so many people being abused by these greedy landlords with unsavory and illegal practices. Very Proud!
bee July 22nd, 2011 at 1:06 pm
Hey, this kind of situation is disgusting. And there is something that you can do about it. Don’t be complicit and reward this type of behavior. Don’t let your friends rent market rate apartments without making some background checks on the building and owner shell companies. This can be done by checking past dob violations on an address search such as the maps at oasisnyc.net
Props to bushwickbk for giving landlord harassment coverage, maybe there should be a regular forum or searchable publishing for local harassment cases so that people new to the neighborhood don’t get drawn into a loaded situation where they are the “new yuppies” on the block.
maribel July 22nd, 2011 at 7:48 pm
i am the last tenant at 85 cornelia st the landlord and i are still battleing this out in court when the landlord mr.Garbo did this to my apartment i still lived there with my 3 kids ages 19 whom is 6 months pregnant and my 13 and 8 years old children he did not care if they would have gotten hurt because at any moment the kitchen & bathroom could have caved in the conditions got really bad and im also a dialysis patient which has had to miss dialysis because the red cross has placed me very far from my center and kristen shelby my advocate has pretty much explain everything that has happen. but just to let the public know im not going without a fight they are trying to break me but i wont let them. for jonathan mena you can email me @ vanbenariice@aol.com and i will show you all my documention that i have
GP July 25th, 2011 at 10:49 am
Important element here:
DO NOT RENT FROM YANIV GARBO OR ABE GREEN.
People like this can NEVER be trusted by tenants again.
Khaki July 29th, 2011 at 1:50 pm
@ Kristin: “How do you think most of these new gut renovated buildings scattered around the neighborhood came about?”
I am sicked by the illegal behavior of landlords like the one in this article. However, not every newly renovated building is the result of evictions like this. I recently bought a building in Bushwick. Before renovation, my building was abondandoned and full of drug dealers and squatters. The neighbors (mostly minorities) banded together to work with the police to have the building condemned and the sqatters removed. The building was called “the crazy house” on my block and people would walk on the other side of the road to avoid it. Now my new neighbors have welcomed me and my tennants (50% of my tennanst are minorities) with open arms. The issue here is not renovation, or the improvments that are taking place. The issue is the illegal and imoral behavior of these landlords. I hope they get everything they deserve for invflicting this kind of abuse.
savage severe August 18th, 2011 at 8:11 am
there’s a special checkerboard place in hell for slumlords
savage severe August 18th, 2011 at 8:12 am
not saying you’re living in a slum but sometimes thats how they roll.