Joel Wiener’s Pinnacle to Auction 93 Bankrupt Buildings

Landlord Joel Wiener, whose vast portfolio got him billionaire status in 2017, is putting some of his buildings up for sale.

An entity connected to Wiener’s Pinnacle Group plans to auction off 93 New York City apartment buildings containing 5,100 units, according to bankruptcy court documents filed Friday. A majority of the buildings contain rent-stabilized units. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.

The auction plan is the result of a bankruptcy case filed by the Wiener-connected parties in May. In total, the bankrupt parties owe lender Flagstar Bank more than $564 million.

The marketing process for the buildings began last week, according to court documents, although the terms still require approval from a federal judge.

Eastdil Secured, working on behalf of the bankrupt party, has received confidentiality agreements from 50 interested buyers, according to court documents. Lawyers have proposed a December 12 deadline for potential buyers to submit a bid and an auction on January 8. Tenant leases will remain in effect if there is a purchase or refinancing.

Pinnacle has fallen behind on maintenance in the affected buildings. Housing code violations considered “immediately hazardous” increased fourfold at the affected buildings between 2019 and 2014, double the rate at similar rent-stabilized buildings, according to city data analyzed by Bloomberg.

Kenneth Fisher, a lawyer working on behalf of Pinnacle Group, said that although the buildings are financially stressed, those violations have increased significantly citywide since 2019.

“The COVID pandemic 2020-2023, made building maintenance more difficult, caused less cooperation by tenants in providing access to their apartments and suspended the ability to get court ordered access for maintenance,” Fisher said via email. “It also took longer for [the city’s housing department] to remove the thousands of violations cleared by the Pinnacle Group in this period.”

Lawyers for the bankrupt entities blamed the financial troubles on high interest rates, inflation in expenses, weak collections and tenant-friendly state legislation. The buildings generated more than $84 million in 2024, according to financial documents cited by Bloomberg.

Wiener was among the first New York real estate players to tap into the Israeli bond market for financing, raising more than $500 million. His Zarasai Group, a British Virgin Islands company, is now in the process of restructuring $275 million (1 billion Israeli shekels) in bonds issued on the Tel Aviv stock exchange. Chapman and Cutler LLP has been hired for the restructuring.

— Lilah Burke