City Takes Bronx Building From Negligent Landlord

For the first time in more than seven years, New York City took a building from a negligent landlord.

The city foreclosed on the 49-unit property at 2201-2205 Davidson Avenue in the Bronx’s University Heights neighborhood, Gothamist reported. It turned the property over to nonprofit developer Neighborhood Restore and private manager Lemle and Wolff, who plan to renovate the building and put tenants on the path to homeownership with permanently affordable co-ops.

The landlord, David Kornitzer, racked up numerous financial penalties and housing violations, roiling tenants and tenant organizers. As of February, the listed property owner owed the city $28 million in back taxes, emergency repair fees and other penalties.

There are also more than 600 open housing violations, according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, including 245 “immediately hazardous” violations like mold, hot water outages and broken locks.

At least as early as last February, Kornitzer appeared willing to give up the building, according to email communications with Neighborhood Restore. Residents stopped paying rent as the problems multiplied: a rent arrears report from this February entered into court records said tenants owed $3.2 million.

New Day Housing Corporation and Romad Realty were also listed as owners of the property. Kornitzer did not comment on the situation to Gothamist.

The seizure is a first for the city since it stopped the Third Party Transfer program in 2019. Officials argued the building could be taken because it was on an earlier list of buildings eligible to be seized under the program.

City Council Housing Committee Chair Pierina Sanchez — whose district includes the Davidson Avenue property — introduced legislation last year to bring back the Third Party Transfer program, but with protections for small owners disproportionately hurt in the past. Sanchez argues it’s the most effective enforcement tool to keep negligent landlords in check.

— Holden Walter-Warner