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Hammering and drilling began a few months after Jared Kushner's family-run family business purchased a converted warehouse building in the trendy Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Renters say that he started early in the morning and continued until nightfall, so loud that he drowned a normal conversation, so violent that he was doing vibrate the walls. So much dust floated through the ducts and under the doors that she covered the beds and clothes in the closets. The rats crawled through the holes in the walls. Workers with keys were pbading by unexpectedly. Residents who sought help have obtained a standard answer: "We have permits."
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More than a dozen current and former residents According to the Associated Press, they believe that Kushner Cos' s incessant construction, as well as rents rises of $ 500 a month or more, were part of the deal. a campaign to push tenants out of stabilized apartments and attract condominium buyers. 19659003] WATCH: Trump's son-in-law, Kushner, meets Netanyahu in Jerusalem
If so, it was a remarkably successful campaign. An AP survey found that over the past three years, more than 250 stabilized rent apartments – 75 percent of the building – were either dumped or sold while the Kushner Cos was in the process of convert the building into luxury condos. These sales have so far totaled more than $ 155 million, an average of $ 1.2 million per apartment
"They won, they were successful," says Barth Bazyluk, who left the company. Apartment C606 with his wife and daughter in December. "You must be ignorant or stupid to think that it was not deliberate."
This close look at one of Kushner Cos's largest residential buildings in New York illustrates what critics describe as the company's cutting-edge business Judge Kushner said at the AP did not harbad the tenants to get them out. But the data suggests that the Austin Nichols House building's business figure was significantly higher than the city averages for the stabilized rents, leaving behind a trail of anger, disturbed lives and a complaint filed Monday according to which tenants would be harbaded.
"We looked at hundreds of buildings stabilized by rent and it's one of the worst we've ever seen," says Aaron Carr, head of the tenant watch committee. Initiative, whose investigation led to the ongoing lawsuit. "The magnitude and speed of tenants' departure, the conditions they were exposed to, provides a window into Kushner Cos's predatory economic model."
READ MORE: The family real estate house of Jared Kushner In a statement, the Kushner Cos. acknowledged having received complaints about construction work during major renovations that ended in December 2017, but responded that he had responded immediately and that he had taken great care to avoid dust and inconvenience
Many tenants moved when their rent was increased to the maximum allowed by the rent stabilization rules.
These rules limit the amount that landlords can increase each year to protect tenants from evictions, although in this building rents are not cheap, with one bedroom for more than $ 3,000 per month.
Also, the building department of the city says that it has sent inspectors into the building dozens of times since 2015 and have found no evidence that the building rules have been violated, a finding that some residents say does not match their experiences.
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The Austin Nichols House, located at 184 Kent Avenue, for decades, was ravaged by a former owner in 2010 to create elegant apartments that took advantage of the high ceilings of the building and views of the waterfront. [19659007] When Jared Kushner and two partners bought it for $ 275 million in April 2015, they clearly made know that they wanted to convert the complex's 338 apartments – all stabilized by rent – into condos. All except nine were busy, and apart from raising the rent, the developers had few tools if they wanted to take the tenants out.
A few months after the purchase, the Kushners undertook major renovations, ripping off appliances, floors and counters.
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"There were always people in the hall early, 8 or so, hitting the walls. had a lot of dust, they had fans and were pushing the dust under the doors, "says technician Marcus Carvalho, who left the building in December after six years, deciding that the $ 1,000 increase rent to renew his lease was not worth it. "I did not want to spend another minute in this construction zone."
His one-room apartment of 679 square feet (63 meters square), the B502, is sold the following month for $ 800 000.
A few weeks after the departure of Carvalho, the woman of the C405 could not stand the noise either.
"C & # Is like having a root cbad without physical pain. […] There were f thunderstorms from all directions, "says Jane Coxwell, a late-night chef who writes at home during the day. "It was impossible to take a call, you could never sit down and read a book or do any work."
Then came the rats, one of whom berthed with a tennis racket while he was playing. he was wavering on a curtain rod in his bathroom. She also had to deal with a flood after workers had hit a pipe in the unit above her and with constant fear that workers would burst into her apartment anytime after two people tried to do it, once in underwear.
Coxwell says she sent dozens of emails to Kushner 's managers for over a year asking for help, but she had little relief.
A particularly noisy day she eventually broke down and headed for a construction manager. "I understand that you have to work, but I do not know how to ask," she pleaded. "Please, please, can you drop it?"
She says the men just laughed.
A lot of the work was done in 2016, and then the Kushners started selling. In 2017 alone, the company sold 99 apartments in the building, according to federal financial disclosure forms of Jared Kushner. The brokerage data shows that 16 more apartments were sold in early March 2018. The same month, Kushner Cos had 151 vacant apartments in the building, according to a court document.
Kushner Cos. At the height of construction, tenants fought back with three dozen complaints at the city's 311 emergency line about work after hours, striking and hammering, falling debris and rodents
although that many say that it did not help much. And after they complained about workers entering their apartments without authorization, the company finally posted guards in the corridors.
"The banner says" Luxury Waterfront Homes For Sale, "says Jeff Werner, a banker who has been living in the building for eight years." There is no advertising "Living in a construction zone with white toxic dust "
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In May, Olmsted Environmental Services consultants found dangerously high levels of lead and crystalline silica. Inhalation of tiny particles of silica has been badociated with lung cancer, liver disease and incurable lung swelling.
Kushner Cos. And its partners have tried to repel the tenants by creating unbearable construction noise and dust conditions in violation of the rules and laws of the state and the city. He also alleges that the Kushners, by failing to take proper precautions, exposed residents to a "cloud of smoke and toxic dust".
Justice Kushner disputed the findings of the environmental report, alleging that it was an updated version of a report prepared several years ago. Ronan Conroy says that he complained to the Kushners several times, going to the sales office once to face the management in person
. to get people out, is not it? Recalls Ms. Conroy asking a staff member to come to the office. He says the man shrugged, did not dispute, then said, "We can let you out of your lease."
Frustrated and facing a rent hike, Conroy left in early 2016.
They made the building as unliveable as possible so that they could get everyone out of there. "
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