An analysis by the Associated Press (AP) discovered that over the past three years, over 250 rent-stabilized apartments were either emptied or sold as the Kushner Companies converted the apartment building to luxury condominiums.
“An @AP investigation into one of the Kushner Cos.’ largest residential buildings reveals that residents say construction aimed to push them out for high-paying condo buyers.”
An @AP investigation into one of the Kushner Cos.’ largest residential buildings reveals that residents say construction aimed to push them out for high-paying condo buyers. https://t.co/pb528WGQdf
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 15, 2018
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The condo sales so far, according to the AP, have totaled over $155 million (an average of $1.2 million per apartment) and have amounted to over 75% of the units in the building.
According to the AP report:
“The hammering and drilling began just months after Jared Kushner’s family real estate firm bought a converted warehouse apartment building in the hip, Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.”
“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.”
Although Jared Kushner denies it, the data points to turnover at the building (known as the Austin Nichols House) that was much higher than city averages for rent-stabilized buildings.
Through his greedy and selfish actions Jared Kushner has left behind a trail of anger and disrupted lives. He has also left behind a lawsuit filed Monday by tenants who say they were harassed and exposed to high levels of cancer-causing dust.
“We’ve looked into hundreds of rent-stabilized buildings and this is one of the worst we’ve ever seen in our history,” said Aaron Carr, head of tenant watchdog Housing Rights Initiative (HRI). It was HRI that initially did the investigation which led to the pending lawsuit. “The scale and speed of tenants leaving, the conditions to which they were exposed, provides a window into the Kushner Company′s predatory business model,” Carr added.
The $10 million lawsuit filed Monday alleges that Kushner and his partners pushed tenants out by creating an environment which was unlivable, with construction noise and dust in violation of state and city rules and laws. It also alleges that Kushner did not take proper environmental precautions and recklessly exposed residents to a “cloud of toxic smoke and dust” possibly causing permanent harm.
This detailed look at one of Kushner’s largest residential buildings in New York City is one more example of his shady and possibly illegal business practices.
This is just another typical corrupt deal done by Donald Trump’s son-in-law which is what we have come to expect from his administration, the most corrupt in history.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
