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Kushner tenants: We were pushed out for luxury condo buyers

By BERNARD CONDON and they made it clear they
GARANCE BURKE, Associ- wanted to convert the
ated Press building's 338 apartments
NEW YORK (AP) — The — all of them rent-stabilized
hammering and drilling be- — into condos. All but nine
gan just months after Jared were occupied, and other
Kushner's family real estate than maxing out the rent,
firm bought a converted developers had few tools
warehouse apartment if they wanted to get ten-
building in the hip, Williams- ants out. Just months after
burg section of Brooklyn. the purchase, the Kushners
Tenants say it started early began extensive renova-
in the morning and went tions, ripping out applianc-
on until nightfall, so loud es, floors and countertops
that it drowned out normal that had been installed five
conversation, so violent years before.
it rattled pictures off the "There were consistently
walls. So much dust wafted people in the hallway early,
through ducts and under 8 or so, banging on things,
doorways that it coated taking down walls. There
beds and clothes in clos- was lots of dust. ... They had
ets. Rats crawled through fans, and they were blow-
holes in the walls. Workers ing dust under the doors,"
with passkeys barged in This June 28, 2018 photo shows 184 Kent Avenue in the Brooklyn borough of New York owned by says tech salesman Mar-
unannounced. Residents the Kushner Cos. cus Carvalho, who left the
who begged for relief got Associated Press. building in December af-
a standard reply, "We have ter six years, deciding the
permits." ter in December. "You have buildings and this is one of each year to protect ten- $1,000 or so increase in rent
More than a dozen current to be ignorant or dumb to the worst we've ever seen," ants from getting pushed to renew his lease wasn't
and former residents of the think this wasn't deliberate." says Aaron Carr, head of out, though in this building worth it. "I didn't want to
building told The Associat- This up-close look at one tenant watchdog Hous- the rents weren't cheap, spend another minute in
ed Press that they believe of the Kushner Cos.' largest ing Rights Initiative, whose with one-bedrooms go- that construction zone."
the Kushner Cos.' relentless residential buildings in New investigation led to the ing for more than $3,000 a His 679-square-foot
construction, along with York illustrates what critics pending lawsuit. "The scale month. (63-square-meter), one-
rent hikes of $500 a month describe as the firm's sharp- and speed of tenants leav- Also, the city's building room apartment, B502,
or more, was part of a elbowed business practices ing, the conditions to which department says it sent sold the next month for
campaign to push tenants while it was run by President they were exposed, pro- inspectors to the build- $800,000.
out of rent-stabilized apart- Donald Trump's son-in-law vides a window into the ing dozens of times since A few weeks after Carval-
ments and bring high-pay- and eventual White House Kushner Cos.' predatory 2015 and uncovered no ho left, the woman in C405
ing condo buyers in. adviser Jared Kushner. business model." evidence that construction couldn't take the noise
If so, it was a remarkably The Kushner Cos. told the In a statement, the Kush- rules were being violated, anymore either.
successful campaign. An AP that it didn't harass any ner Cos. acknowledged it a finding that some resi- "It's like having a root canal
AP investigation found that tenants to get them out. received some complaints dents say doesn't square without the physical pain.
over the past three years, But the data suggest turn- about construction during with their experiences. ... It was drilling from every
more than 250 rent-stabi- over at the building known major renovations, which The landmarked Austin direction," says Jane Cox-
lized apartments — 75 per- as the Austin Nichols House ended in December 2017, Nichols House at 184 Kent well, a chef who works late
cent of the building — were was significantly higher but said that it responded Avenue, for decades a nights and writes at home
either emptied or sold as than city averages for cov- to them immediately and warehouse for groceries during the day. "It was im-
the Kushner Cos. was con- eted rent-stabilized build- that "tremendous care was and Wild Turkey bourbon, possible to take a call. You
verting the building to lux- ings, leaving behind a trail taken to prevent dust and was gutted by a previous could never sit and read
ury condos. Those sales so of anger, disrupted lives inconvenience to tenants." owner in 2010 to create a book or get any work
far have totaled more than and a lawsuit to be filed It said many tenants moved sleek apartments that took done."
$155 million, an average of Monday in which tenants out when their rent was in- advantage of the build- Then came the rats, includ-
$1.2 million per apartment. say they were harassed creased to the maximum ing's high ceilings and wa- ing one she accosted with
"They won, they succeed- and exposed to high levels allowed under rent-stabili- terfront views. a tennis racket as it tee-
ed," says Barth Bazyluk, who of cancer-causing dust. zation rules. When Jared Kushner and tered on a curtain rod in
left apartment C606 with "We've looked into hun- Those rules limit the amount two partners bought it for her bathroom.
his wife and baby daugh- dreds of rent-stabilized that landlords can hike rent $275 million in April 2015, Continued on Page 3