Tenants to rally against Fannie Mae

Tenants of five
Urban America Management buildings in
Manhattan and Roosevelt Island will rally in Harlem today against
mortgage giant Fannie Mae, arguing that it has a duty to make sure the
buildings it owns loans on do not fall into states of disrepair. The
buildings, which were originally purchased by Cammeby’s International
for $295
million in 2005, were flipped to Urban America in 2007 for
$918
million. Government sponsored mortgage giant Fannie Mae owns the $700
million loan
for the buildings. Since the flip, tenants claim that the buildings
have fallen
into a state of disrepair and there has been a steady decline in
services and
maintenance. Many fear that these buildings will see the same fate of
the
Ocelot buildings in the Bronx, another portfolio of Fannie Mae’s whose
loan was sold to Deutsche Bank after conditions became so bad that
eight of the
properties are now included in a list of the 200 worst offenders in
terms of
code violations in New York City.