From left: 620 West 182nd Street and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio

A man who New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio dubbed “NYC’s worst,” has racked up 1,187 building and housing violations and is under investigation by city, state and federal officials for everything from tax fraud to selling narcotics, DNAinfo reported.

Josh Neustein, who owns eight buildings, four of which are in Upper Manhattan, is under investigation by the New York City Police Department, the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies, after a probe by the city’s Department of Investigation was concluded last month. [more]

From left: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, state Sen. Adriano Espaillat and the corner of Dyckman Street and Nagle Avenue in Washington Heights

For the past decade, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has touted his commitment to building and preserving affordable housing in New York City. But according to the New York Daily News, he’s overlooking Washington Heights.

While the area’s uptown neighbors in central Harlem and East Harlem have added 2,770 and 2,133 new units of affordable housing, respectively, and the entire borough has seen 11,627 new units, just 139 units have been added in Washington Heights.  [more]

From left: 134 Haven and Robert Shapiro, vice president at Massey Knakal

A $9.05 million sale of a multi-family building in the Washington Heights neighborhood has broken records for the area, according to a statement from Massey Knakal Realty Services today.

The 44,442-square-foot building, at 134 Haven Avenue, sold at “the highest price per unit ever paid for a strictly residential property with an elevator in Washington Heights,” according to Massey Knakal’s comparable sales data, the statement said. The six-story building is between 172nd and 173rd streets. [more]

The Inwood neighborhood

After a massive fire destroyed a number of businesses in Inwood last month, one couple is taking matters into their own hands, and starting a local green market to fill the void, DNAinfo reports.

The three-alarm blaze destroyed much of the commercial block at 4945 Broadway, near West 207th Street, Jan. 3. Now locals Daniel Strong and Danielle Ricciardi plan to reinvigorate their neighborhood. They hope the market will resemble the Brooklyn Flea or Dekalb Market, DNAinfo said. [more]

Shop operators and officials from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance have been working with Vantage Properties to hammer out a deal to keep a multi-use bookstore at 4157 Broadway, DNAinfo reported.

Patrons of the Word Up store, which has been operating rent free at the Vantage building since June on a month-to-month contract, gathered in the space this past Saturday to celebrate the six-month milestone and to raise money for the store’s first month of rent, should the Vantage contract work out.

Word Up even allowed attendees to purchase a share in the business for $20; it’s hoping to run the store according to a “Community Supported Bookshop” program, where patrons receive special benefits for contributing monthly to the store. … [more]

From left: A rendering of the new George Washington Bridge Bus Station and the current structureThree retailers have deals for space within the soon-to-be-renovated George Washington Bridge Bus Station, helping to ensure the $183 million project will be a success.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey’s partner in the plan, SJM Partners, has deals with discount retailer Marshalls, supermarket Fine Fare and a new gym chain called Blink Fitness. The trio plan to take about half of the 105,000 square feet of retail available when the renovation is complete in the summer of 2013. Construction is beginning this winter. … [more]

Sharif El-Gamal and 1835 Amsterdam AvenueIf Sharif El-Gamal doesn’t show up to court Thursday, he could be sent to jail over the $63,133 his company owes the city in fines, fees and taxes for a Washington Heights property, the New York Post reported.

El-Gamal, the man behind the notorious Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan, acquired the 14-unit apartment building at 1835 Amsterdam Avenue in 2008, public records show, although the price isn’t listed. Between July 2010 and May 2011, 150 complaints about rats, roaches, lack of heat and construction debris were filed for the building. … [more]

Developer Quadriad Realty Partners’ plan to build four tall apartment towers at Broadway and 190th Street in Washington Heights is proving unpopular with residents, the New York Times reported. Some are saying that the proposed towers, with more than 800 apartments in total, would block sunlight and bring too many new residents to the neighborhood.

“It looks like a Stalinist-era project — gigantic towers sitting atop a fairly sedate neighborhood,” said one nearby resident, Vadim Moldovan, of the proposed towers ranging from 23 to 39 stories. “It would dwarf the landscape and blot out the sun.”

In September, the local community board rejected a proposal for the four towers, but encouraged Quadriad to return with revised design for smaller buildings…. [more]

Rendering of George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal

If it were possible to soar on the wings of angels, or even on those of the lowly pigeons that haunt the five boroughs, we would be able, perhaps, to appreciate the pristine geometric beauty of the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal. Unfortunately, we remain earthbound, and at street level, the afore-mentioned terminal is one ugly monster of a building. But that is about to change with a nearly $200 million renovation. The six words, “The George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal,” perfectly convey the abject experience that awaits anyone so luckless as to have to enter this brutalist palace of poured concrete, completed in 1963…. [more]

509 West 212th Street (source: PropertyShark)

Milbank Real Estate defaulted on the mortgage for its $4.79 million, 45-unit, rent-stabilized building on 212th Street near Tenth Avenue and the property is set to be auctioned off, according to the Wall Street Journal. The building, like other properties owned by the firm, has some of the worst conditions in the city, according to the Department of Preservation and Development, and has collected 214 violations since 1998, records show. If there are no bidders for the apartment, LNR Property, which represents investors in the commercial mortgage package, will retain the property. The Inwood apartment, purchased by Milbank in 2007, is one of many troubled properties in the portfolio the firm put together at the height of the housing bubble…. [more]