Slumlord's Tenants Fear Pending Sale Means Gentrification

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A notorious slumlord is selling a batch of Crown Heights buildings to a large investment company and tenants fear they’re headed from the frying pan to the gentrified fire.

Rubin Dukler — named the 11th worst landlord in New York City in 2017 — told the residents of four buildings on Eastern Parkway and Sterling Place that their crumbling homes would soon belong to the Iris Holdings Group, tenants said.

“We are scared of gentrification,” said Viola Bibins, one of several Duklar tenants who will rally on Eastern Parkway Tuesday night. “We want safety, heat, hot water. It’s not too much to ask.”

Three of the four buildings Dukler intends to sell — 1018 Eastern Parkway, 1074 Eastern Parkway, 1392 Sterling Place, and 1460 Sterling Place — were called out on Public Advocate Letitia James’ watchlist for the high number of housing and building violations they had accrued.

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development reports 151 open violations — 60 of them immediately hazardous at 1018 Eastern Parkway — where they found scalding water coming out of the taps, crumbling walls in the bathrooms and fire escape windows that could not be locked, among other complaints.

Conditions are similarly poor at 1392 Sterling Place, which has accrued 112 HPD violations for broken floors, leaking ceilings and, once again, scalding hot water, city records show. Two of the four properties have open vacate orders — meaning the homes were deemed unfit for human habitation — and three properties have racked up more than 100 violations.

Rent-stabilized tenants fear the sale to IHG — a company that transforms “distressed and under-performing assets into valuable, thriving properties” — means they'll never get to see these problems get fixed.

“IHG has the upper hand,” said Yvrose Coley. “They can use fear tactics to scare us into moving or staying quiet.”

IHG says on its website that currently owns 17 multi-family homes, and has sold 10 others, in Brooklyn, Manhattan and The Bronx. City records and reports show those several of those buildings were bought from, sold to and co-owned with infamous New York slumlords.

The RealDeal reported that in 2017 IHG bought five Bed-Stuy buildings for $15 million from Mark Rubin, a landlord named among the worst in the city in 2015, according to Brownstoner. Those buildings still have more than 100 open HPD violations.

A former IHG property at 972 Eastern Parkway now belongs to Yechiel Weinberger, who was named the third worst landlord in 2015, city records show.

And IHG manager Marc Blumenfrucht co-owns 136 Herkimer St. with Robert Rafael, who was named the 83rd worst landlord in 2017, city records show.

IHG's dealings with such landlords is why tenants intend to rally at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday evening outside 1018 Eastern Parkway and demand their Dukler give them more control in the upcoming sale, they said.

“We want to be treated like human beings,” said Coley. “We’re having this rally to keep our building from being sold until we can have a say in the process.”

Neither Dukler nor IHG immediately responded to Patch’s requests for comment.

Note: Yechiel Weinberger is the former landlord of this reporter.

Photo courtesy of GoogleMaps/Oct. 2017