He’s gone, but certainly not forgotten. Roughly 50 tenants of a Williamsburg rental built by murdered developer Menachem Stark are out in the cold after the Department of Buildings plastered a notice to vacate on the door of 120 South 4th Street.
Inspectors from the Department of Buildings on Tuesday found that the five-story, 20-unit building at 120 South 4th Street “has questionable structural integrity [because of] the installation of substandard structural steel columns, trusses, beams, welds,” the New York Post reported.
Stark, whose burned and suffocated body was found at a gas station in Great Neck, L.I. in January 2014, ran into financial trouble with partner Israel Perlmutter after the crash and lost the nearly-finished building in 2013.
Stark’s brother-in-law, Abraham Bernat, picked up the property for $11.7 million. It had more than 50 violations at the time of the bankruptcy proceeding, according to records.
A construction worker, Kendel Felix, 27, has pleaded not guilty on kidnapping and murder charges. Felix said Stark owed money to his boss, “Erskine,” who would give Felix a cut if he helped “scare” the Brooklyn developer outside his Williamsburg office during a kidnapping on Jan. 2, 2014. The kidnapping went sideways and Stark suffocated, Felix allegedly told detectives. “Erskine,” who has not been identified, and another man have not been charged, due to what prosecutors deemed insufficient evidence.
It’s unclear if and when the tenants of 120 South 4th Street can move back into the building. [NYP] — James Kleimann