Tenants in rent-controlled Kushner Cos. buildings say they were pushed out: report
Source: The Hill
Former tenants in a rent-stabilized building in Brooklyn bought in 2015 by Jared Kushner's family real estate business allege that they were forced out of their homes by incessant construction and staggering rent hikes.
More than a dozen current and former tenants in the Austin Nichols House in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood recounted their experiences with Kushner Cos. to The Associated Press.
The interviews describe construction that began early in the mornings and lasted until nightfall. Aside from the noise caused by the renovations, the construction reportedly spread dust throughout the building.
Workers often entered apartments without prior notice, the AP reported, and rats scurried through the building.
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/397106-tenants-in-rent-controlled-kushner-cos-buildings-say-they-were-pushed
Here's original AP story: [link:Kushner tenants: We were pushed out for luxury condo buyers|Kushner tenants: We were pushed out for luxury condo buyers].
Here's an excerpt:
Tenants say it started early in the morning and went on until nightfall, so loud that it drowned out normal conversation, so violent it rattled pictures off the walls. So much dust wafted through ducts and under doorways that it coated beds and clothes in closets. Rats crawled through holes in the walls. Workers with passkeys barged in unannounced. Residents who begged for relief got a standard reply, “We have permits.”
More than a dozen current and former residents of the building told The Associated Press that they believe the Kushner Cos.? relentless construction, along with rent hikes of $500 a month or more, was part of a campaign to push tenants out of rent-stabilized apartments and bring high-paying condo buyers in.
If so, it was a remarkably successful campaign. An AP investigation found that over the past three years, more than 250 rent-stabilized apartments — 75 percent of the building — were either emptied or sold as the Kushner Cos. was converting the building to luxury condos. Those sales so far have totaled more than $155 million, an average of $1.2 million per apartment.
“They won, they succeeded,” says Barth Bazyluk, who left apartment C606 with his wife and baby daughter in December. “You have to be ignorant or dumb to think this wasn’t deliberate.”
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