Three Crown Heights buildings transferred from negligent landlord
Streetview of 1392 Sterling Place © Google 2024
Three rent-stabilized apartment buildings in Crown Heights have been transferred away from their negligent owners, paving the way for improvements for tenants across 88 apartments. Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday announced the transfer of 1018 Eastern Parkway, 1074 Eastern Parkway, and 1392 Sterling Place, which under landlord Rubin Dukler had a combined total of nearly 1,000 open code violations. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) will work with the buildings’ new owner, Mark Schwartz, to implement critical repairs and resolve hazardous conditions that tenants have had to deal with for years.
However, according to reporting by The Real Deal, the properties’ ownership is more complicated than the Mamdani administration’s announcement suggests. In fact, no landlord has appeared to claim responsibility for the buildings.
The trio was previously owned by Rikud Realty and the Dukler family. Problems surrounding the properties began in 2017, when the Duklers attempted to sell half of their stake in the properties to a company called Iris Holdings.
The deal never closed after Iris learned new information about the buildings and tried to recover its deposit, alleging that the properties had been sold on “false grounds.”
At the time, Rikud was also facing a judgment stemming from a 2010 personal injury lawsuit over lead poisoning. In 2017, the plaintiff was awarded $2.2 million against Rikud. To prevent the buildings from being sold to satisfy the judgment, Iris had its investor purchase the debt, and the lead poisoning victim subsequently signed the judgment over to Iris’s investor.
According to The Real Deal, Iris planned to work with the city to acquire a low-interest loan and tax exemption in return for making vital repairs and maintaining the property as affordable housing, but when that approach failed, they decided to auction off the real estate.
Iris ultimately did not take over the buildings. Instead, Schwartz and his firm, Brooklyn Affordable Housing Associates, took the lead in applying for low-interest loans and tax exemptions from the city.
The firm paid $7.6 million to take ownership of the buildings, a price that included municipal fines, a defaulted mortgage, civil penalties, and the lead poisoning judgment. Schwartz says he owns 20 affordable housing properties across the state. He is also the current mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey.
As ownership of the buildings changed, tenants began organizing in 2018 to push for repairs and investment. In 2021, a few months after Rubin Dukler died, the tenants launched a rent strike over conditions in the buildings, with support from the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board.
In 2025, they formed the Dukler Tenant Union to push for resident ownership and the transfer of the buildings away from the Dukler family.
Over the years, residents have reported unresolved issues such as mold, leaks, plumbing problems, and pests. Desra Lawrence, a tenant leader at 1018 Eastern Parkway, said she had to buy her own refrigerator and stove and replace her kitchen cupboards because Dukler wouldn’t take care of them, according to a press release.
HPD has been required to make emergency repairs at each property, while the agency and the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants have supported tenants in their fight for better conditions, including through Housing Court litigation seeking to compel the Duklers to make repairs.
The union has since reached an agreement with Schwartz that commits him to rehabilitating the three buildings with tenant oversight while working toward resident ownership.
“I’m feeling relieved and hopeful. It’s been a long fight, and I’m happy that the buildings may finally be out of the hands of the Dukler family,” Lawrence said. “I’m ready for a fresh start and for us tenants to finally have a real voice in what happens with our homes.”
“We shouldn’t have had to fight this hard just to have a decent place to live,” she added. “I’m proud that we stood together. I’m hopeful this will be a new beginning of something much better for all of us.”
The transfer is part of the Mamdani administration’s broader effort to address the city’s housing crisis and strengthen tenant protections.
Last week, the mayor announced a new city directive that “fast-tracks” some of the most serious cases of landlord neglect in Housing Court, aiming to expedite cases involving unsafe housing conditions. In July, he launched a canvassing effort to help tenants organize for safer housing.
That same month, he also released the “Rental Rip-Off” report, a 68-page analysis informed by conversations with more than 2,400 New Yorkers that outlines policies to improve landlord compliance, strengthen tenant organizing, and improve housing quality.
“The tenants of the Dukler Tenant Union have suffered from neglect and disinvestment for years. Today, a new chapter begins for these buildings,” Mamdani said. “We will work alongside tenants and the new owner to put these 88 homes on a path toward stability and make clear that every New Yorker deserves a safe, well-maintained and stable place to call home.”
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