On a chilly January day, public advocate Jumaane Williams gathered TV cameras to Woodruff Avenue in Brooklyn.
The press convention was for the reveal of Williams’ “Worst Landlord Listing,” however he was there in Prospect Park South to disgrace one explicit landlord, A&E Actual Property Holdings. Two of the agency’s executives had topped his listing, ranked by open housing code violations throughout their buildings.
Since then, A&E and its founder Douglas Eisenberg haven’t left the crosshairs of the town’s tenant advocacy coalition. A&E has develop into one thing of a stand-in for “unhealthy” landlords and has gained a good quantity of public consideration.
On Tuesday, the group Housing Rights Initiative introduced a go well with in opposition to three A&E associates, alleging that the corporate engaged in a “wrongful scheme” to decontrol rent-stabilized items and illegally increase rents. The plaintiffs, residents in 5 Queens buildings, argue that no substantial work was performed on their items to justify the boosts in authorized rents their items acquired.
“The fraudulent overcharges uncovered by this investigation characterize yet one more instance of this landlord’s already demonstrated sample of flagrant disregard for tenants’ proper regulation, and HRI is decided to play a task in persevering with to carry A&E accountable for his or her abuses,” Housing Rights Initiative wrote in a launch. The group additionally stated it will proceed investigating A&E’s portfolio.
A&E responded by taking intention at Roger Sachar, the legal professional at Newman Ferrara who filed the go well with.
“Roger Sachar has been unsuccessfully suing A&E-managed buildings for ten years and has gotten completely nowhere with them,” a spokesperson for A&E stated in a press release .“He’s an opportunist who seeks to revenue off his shoppers whereas blanketing homeowners of rent-stabilized properties with lawsuits backed by absurd claims.”
Eisenberg previously told The Actual Deal that the agency has invested $10 million into 34-15 Parsons Boulevard, one of many buildings at concern within the go well with.
That’s not all. Simply days earlier than Williams put Eisenberg on the prime of the worst landlords listing, Mayor Zohran Mamdani introduced a $2.1 million settlement with A&E to “tackle tenant harassment and dangerous situations throughout 14 buildings.” (Though introduced and championed by Mamdani, the settlement was nearly actually labored out through the Adams administration.)
And to additional bolster Eisenberg’s public profile, The New York Occasions Journal, in a lengthy story about rent-stabilized housing, made him its stand-in for the town’s landlords. Theirs was a extra sympathetic portrayal of Eisenberg than Mamdani’s.
“After 2019, we spent numerous time attempting to tinker with our mannequin to strive to determine a technique to make it work,” Eisenberg advised the Occasions. “I believe what you’ve seen is that it’s unattainable to make it work. The mathematics is simply the maths.”
I used to be there at Williams’ press convention and joined his employees and different reporters within the basement of the constructing in Prospect Park South, the place we noticed useless roaches and rat droppings.
A spokesperson for A&E stated the agency has invested $850 million in its portfolio. Nonetheless, it appeared apparent to me that there have been certainly some issues on the constructing. The query is then who accountable. Tenant advocates, together with director of the Mayor’s Workplace to Shield Tenants Cea Weaver, blame landlords themselves. Landlords like A&E blame the Housing Stability and Tenant Safety Act of 2019, which closed avenues to extend rents in stabilized residences.
“What Eisenberg sees as a virtuous circle — upgrading buildings, elevating rents, growing property values,” the Occasions wrote in its story, “Weaver sees as a vicious cycle that New York lastly has the chance to interrupt.”
What we’re fascinated by: It’s been one 12 months because the tragic taking pictures at Rudin Administration’s 345 Park Avenue, the place 4 folks misplaced their lives. I wrote this week about the litigation that has adopted the occasions. However how else has the impression of the tragedy reverberated all through the trade and metropolis? Ship ideas to lilah.burke@therealdeal.com
A factor we’ve discovered: LeBron James may live in New York Metropolis and commute to Philadelphia through helicopter to play for the 76ers after the NBA star signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the crew final week. If he does, James would comply with within the footsteps of NBA Corridor of Famer Wilt Chamberlain, who primarily lived in New York whereas taking part in with the Sixers.
— Spencer Davis
Elsewhere…
— The West Harlem Neighborhood Preservation Group sued the town to dam a 200-unit inexpensive housing improvement in Hamilton Heights they are saying may displace a neighborhood well being heart, Crain’s reports. The Metropolis Council authorised the undertaking, often called Hill Prime Flats, in March 2026, however the clinic doesn’t have the funds to relocate, in keeping with the lawsuit.
— Mayor Zohran Mamdani is standing by his feedback about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Netanyahu accused him of “fomenting hate” and making Jewish New Yorkers really feel unsafe following the stabbing of a Jewish man and an Asian man on the Higher West Facet final week, amNY reports. “I’m not considering getting right into a backwards and forwards with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Mamdani stated. “What I’ll say is that right here in New York Metropolis, one in every of my prime priorities is preserving Jewish New Yorkers protected, preserving each single New Yorker protected.”
— Over 800 flights had been canceled at main New York Metropolis airports Tuesday following menace of a extreme thunderstorm that might bring 5 to seven inches of rainfall to New York Metropolis, New York Each day Information reports. The Nationwide Climate Service has issued a flood look ahead to New York and components of New Jersey via 8 p.m. Wednesday and the Federal Aviation Administration issued floor stops at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark attributable to staffing shortages.
— Spencer Davis
Closing time
Residential: The costliest residential sale recorded Tuesday was $47 million for a 7,074-square-foot sponsor-sale condominium at 217 West 57th Avenue in Occasions Sq. North.
Business: The costliest industrial transaction was $188 million for an eight-story, 400,000-square-foot life & sciences property at 125 West Finish Avenue in Lincoln Sq.. Taconic Companions offered the constructing to ABS Companions.
New to the Market: The best value for a residential property hitting the market was $6.5 million for a 2,917-square-foot condominium at 61 North Moore Avenue in Tribeca. Brad Ingalls and Brendon O’Rourke with Sotheby’s Worldwide Realty have the listing.
Breaking Floor: The biggest new constructing allow filed was for a proposed 369,603-square-foot, 828-unit mixed-use undertaking at 243 East one hundred and twenty fifth Avenue in East Harlem. Paul Carr with S9 Structure filed the allow on behalf of Kristen Miller of Richman Group Growth.
— Matthew Elo
Learn extra
The Daily Dirt: The political theater of Mamdani’s bad-buildings list
