Tenants claim BK landlord tried to illegally subdivide units

Mordechai Nagel hit with a stop-work order at 85 Eastern Parkway

85 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn
85 Eastern Parkway in Prospect Heights

Prospect Heights landlord Mordechai Nagel reportedly illegally subdivided a number of units in his 1920s-era building and listed the scaled-down sub-units as rental properties — prompting a series of stop-work orders from the city’s Department of Buildings.

Construction ceased at 85 Eastern Parkway last month after tenants in the building, many of whom are rent-stabilized, complained that work had been underway for more than a year to split several of the property’s larger apartments into smaller units.

Listings for the divided apartments at the 42-unit building were still online as of Wednesday, according to DNAinfo, with two two-bedroom apartments that were originally part of a four-bedroom dwelling priced starting at $2,750 per month.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Ideal Properties Group broker Sully Klein, whose company had the listings, said the firm immediately stopped showing the units as soon as it found out about the complaints.

Nagel submitted permit applications to convert seven apartments in the building “into two units each,” according to DOB filings in March – though tenants say they first noticed construction nearly two years ago.

In 2014, Nagel filed permits to more than double the height of the building with a seven-story addition. Those plans were publicly opposed by 85 Eastern Parkway’s tenant association and have been shelved, according to DOB records. [DNAinfo]Rey Mashayekhi