Flatbush Landlord Tops The Public Advocate’s Worst Landlords List in 2018, Again
Just a couple days before Christmas, former Public Advocate Letitia James released the annual Worst Landlords list for the year 2018. In the years past, the list was usually published by Thanksgiving, except in 2011. But Ms. James was busy running for New York Attorney General, a race she won, so the publication of the highly sensitive list was delayed, her office told us in December.
The private landlord list is topped by Eric Silverstein, whose four rental buildings with 356 apartments raked in 1,449 open Housing Preservation Department violations. Three of his building are in and around Flatbush, and one in Queens.
This is not Silverstein’s first time on the list, and it seems the infamy comes with few consequences and little relief to those residing in their buildings over the years. This is the same landlord, who scheduled to shut off water in the days leading up to Eid last year, causing anguish to the tenants. Thanks to our reporting and swift intervention by the Public Advocate’s Office the water shutoff was averted.
In 2017, Eric Silverstein landed in number 5 spot on the list of the city’s worst landlords with 739 open violations for three buildings with 237 units. The year before, his father was top of the list again with eight buildings and over 2,000 violations. The year before that, 2015, he was at the No 2 spot on the list.
Since Public Advocate does not provide historical archives of the lists, but replaces the entire site each time a new list is published, it is unclear for how many years since the list was first published by the now Mayor Bill de Blasio when he held the Public Advocate’s Office in 2010 the same landlords have been at the top of the list.
The buildings on the list this year are part of the portfolio Harry Silverstein of Mill Basin had amassed since the 1960s. At his death in 2017, he owned 14 buildings with over 800 apartments across Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx and the family was looking to sell all of them, The Real Deal reported at the time.
Failing to sell the portfolio as a whole, his son Eric Silverstein, now in charge of the operations, is selling the buildings individually. He sold 1130 Nostrand Avenue – a four-story, 46 unit building with six commercial units in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens in March of 2017 to Eric Miller and Jonathan Weinberger for $10.5 million, according to filings. At the time he also owned 605 East 16th Street, 535 East 21st Street, 488 Rockaway Parkway, 429 Mayfair Drive South, 261 Lenox Road, 250 Parkville Avenue, 2005 Albemarle Road and 141 Lenox Road in Brooklyn.
The Worst Landlords list also breaks out the top 15 worst buildings in each borough, and the full list for The Worst Landlords 2018 and their buildings could be found on the Public Advocate’s website but is also available at landlordwatchlist.com.
If you go to landlordwatchlist.com you can check if your building is on the list.
We will do a deeper dive on the Brooklyn properties, public and private, on this list in the next few months. (If you are interested in our work, consider supporting us with membership and we’ll be able to do more quicker.)
Below are the details for the three Silverstein buildings in Flatbush, which also land on the worst buildings list in Brooklyn in spots #2, #19 and # 10:
Here are the other buildings in Brooklyn Top 15:
# 1: 245 SULLIVAN PLACE, BROOKLYN 11225
Number of Units: 40
Number of HPD Violations: 519
Number of DOB Violations: 3
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions: 0
# 3: 827 HALSEY STREET, BROOKLYN 11233
Number of Units: 6
Number of HPD Violations: 316
Number of DOB Violations: 2
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions: 0
# 4: 1092 WILLMOHR STREET, BROOKLYN 11212
Number of Units: 39
Number of HPD Violations: 285
Number of DOB Violations: 0
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions: 4
# 5: 719 MILLER AVENUE, BROOKLYN 11207
Number of Units: 6
Number of HPD Violations: 283
Number of DOB Violations: 6
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions: 0
# 6: 401 MACON STREET, BROOKLYN 11233
Number of Units: 16
Number of HPD Violations: 283
Number of DOB Violations: 12
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions: 4
# 7:1436 PACIFIC STREET, BROOKLYN 11216
Number of Units: 8
Number of HPD Violations: 276
Number of DOB Violations: 0
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions: 0
# 8: 1015 PACIFIC STREET, BROOKLYN 11238
Number of Units: 6
Number of HPD Violations: 261
Number of DOB Violations: 3
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions: 0
#11: 1719 PITKIN AVENUE, BROOKLYN 11212
Number of Units: 12
Number of HPD Violations: 237
Number of DOB Violations: 0
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions: 0
#12: 333 MENAHAN STREET, BROOKLYN 11237
Number of Units: 6
Number of HPD Violations: 235
Number of DOB Violations: 4
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions: 0
#13: 397 EAST 49 STREET, BROOKLYN 11203
Number of Units: 34
Number of HPD Violations: 230
Number of DOB Violations: 1
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions: 0
#14: 676 MILLER AVENUE, BROOKLYN 11207
Number of Units: 7
Number of HPD Violations: 222
Number of DOB Violations: 0
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions:0
#15: 1423 DE KALB AVENUE, BROOKLYN 11237
Number of Units: 6
Number of HPD Violations: 220
Number of DOB Violations: 6
Tax Lien in Past Two Years None
Number of Evictions: 1