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Bronx DA investigating building collapse that has left dozens homeless
By
David Brand
Published Dec 12, 2023
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Photo by Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images
By
David Brand
Published Dec 12, 2023
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The Bronx District Attorney’s office is investigating the partial collapse of a seven-story apartment building that left dozens of tenants homeless Monday, a spokesperson told Gothamist.
Eric Steltzer, a spokesperson for Bronx DA Darcel Clark, said an assistant district attorney from the office’s investigations division is working with the city's fire and buildings departments on their probe at 1915 Billingsley Terrace, where a corner of the building collapsed onto the sidewalk Monday afternoon.
“[The] DA’s office is working with authorities and other agencies,” Steltzer said.
Engineer Richard Koenigsberg, who flagged “unsafe” façade problems at the building with the DOB in 2020, also said he met with officials from the DA’s office Monday night. He spoke with Gothamist on his way to meet with DOB and other agency officials Tuesday morning.
“This is a catastrophic structural collapse of a column at the corner of the building,” he said. “It’s amazing no one was hurt.”
City officials have cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the cause of the collapse, and the investigation into what caused the destruction was still ongoing Tuesday morning. The DOB said the owner filed permits to correct the façade problems in June.
Briefly reached by phone Tuesday morning, building owner David Kleiner told Gothamist he did not know what caused the collapse and was busy trying to find new housing for residents.
“Right now I'm dealing with trying to relocate the tenants," he said, adding that he “just got reports recently that all the façade work was complete and ready for sign-off."
Tenants have long complained about conditions at the nearly century-old building and have even sued Kleiner’s company, 1915 Realty LLC, to force repairs and fix lead paint peeling from the walls, according to building and court records.
The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has hit the landlord with more than 100 housing code violations at the Morris Heights complex in recent years. Tenants made at least three heat outage complaints over the past month, HPD records indicate.
Holding an actual person accountable for problems at a property can be challenging, and landlords rarely face serious civil or criminal penalties. New York state law allows individuals to mask their ownership of buildings through limited liability companies.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has so far refused to sign a bill that could shed light on the individuals behind such companies, also known as LLCs. She has until the end of the year to make a decision on the legislation.
Kleiner has long been on the radar of tenant advocates and city officials — who announced a six-figure penalty against him earlier this year.
The LLC, 1915 Realty, purchased the building in 2004 for $3 million, property records show.
Kleiner, who also goes by Dovid Kleiner or "David David," signed mortgage documents for a $5.4 million loan on the property in 2021, and his company DK & CK Management runs the building, according to property records.
He has been a frequent subject of tenant organizing at other buildings in the Bronx by the groups Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and CASA-New Settlement, both organizations said Tuesday.
Kleiner appeared on the public advocate’s annual “worst landlord” list in 2016 after accumulating hundreds of housing code violations throughout his portfolio. He also signed mortgage documents for another Bronx building listed on the 2022 landlord watch list.
1915 Realty is registered to an address on Avenue J in Brooklyn that's associated with 18 other Kleiner-owned properties cited for repeated lead paint violations by HPD. In August, Kleiner agreed to pay the city $112,000 after he and his affiliated firms failed to record whether children under the age of six lived in units with lead paint.
“Safe, high-quality, affordable housing for New Yorkers has been a north star for this administration, and that’s why we are cracking down on those who are putting our children at risk of lead exposure,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement announcing the settlement at the time.
The partial collapse at the building Monday afternoon did not result in any serious injuries, according to Fire Department Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.
Still, tenants across the building’s 47 units were left homeless by the disaster.
Marilyn Arias said she did not know where she would go next and was scared to ever return to her apartment.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen to me now,” she said in Spanish. “I don't want to live in that building anymore. Because that building shattered so hard that if you had been there, it was as if you had hit a leaf. That's how it shattered.”
Her son, Angel, said he was working from home when “the ground started shaking” and the superintendent told him the building was “falling apart.”
“We always complained that it was like a dump,” he said “There was, like, electrical issues, it was old walls. We recently got work done and it got fixed a little bit, but it was still terrible and the landlord is not really a good guy.”
Additional reporting by Catalina Gonella
Tagged
buildings
fdny
department of housing preservation and development
darcel clark
new york city
housing
public safety
the bronx
investigations
DOB
public advocate
district attorney
building collapse
Kathy Hochul
morris heights
eric adams
David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
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