By Jeremy Walsh
Apollo Real Estate Advisors & Vantage Properties LLC acquired 50 structures primarily in Flushing, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Woodside and Sunnyside comprising nearly 2,000 residential units Feb. 1, Vantage CEO Neil Rubler said.”We're very excited about the transaction,” he said.Tenants in one major Haros building, 41-46 50th St. in Woodside, said Haros made efforts to improve the buildings in the months leading up to the sale. In 2005, the advocacy group Housing Here and Now listed him as one of the 10 worst landlords in the city because his properties in the borough accumulated close to 6,000 violations that year.But the sale has housing rights groups worried. Robert McCreanor, attorney for the Catholic Migration Office of the Brooklyn-Queens Diocese, has dealt with both Haros and Vantage in court. He said while Haros generally neglected his buildings and their tenants, Vantage makes efforts to evict current rent-stabilized tenants in order to rent the apartments at a higher rate.Often, he said, the company takes advantage of laws governing succession rights on leases to get rid of tenants.”Even the people whose names are not on the lease and who are facing eviction, most of them have lived in these apartments for years – sometimes as much as 15 or 20 years,” McCreanor said. “The superintendent knows they live there, the landlord knows they live there. … In some cases, there may be technical, legal grounds, but there are also principles that apply here.”Benjamin Dulchin, deputy director for the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, a coalition of 90 New York City non-profit neighborhood housing groups,, said a number of groups around the city have been concerned about Vantage, which he contended has a pattern of systematically harassing the low-rent tenants and pushing them out of the building.”There's nothing remarkable in what they're doing, except that they seem to be applying it very systematically and they seem to have a very clear business plan that is about pushing out low-rent-paying tenants,” he said.Rubler refuted the idea that Vantage works to evict tenants in buildings it acquires.”We seriously undertake our responsibilities under rent stabilization and as responsible landlords to abide by all the appropriate regulations and to provide a first-class middle-income housing product to our residents,” he said. “I fully expect that the residents will stay. I hope they will.”Rubler founded Vantage in 2005 after serving as executive vice president of The Olnick Organization, a pioneering New York residential development firm that built the first luxury apartments in Harlem.Vantage made its first major real estate acquisition in early 2006, when it partnered with Manhattan-based Apollo Real Estate Advisors to buy the 1,800-unit Delano Village apartment complex in Harlem.It currently manages at least 22 buildings in Queens, including 37-37 88th St. in Jackson Heights and 47-05 45th St. in Woodside, and other buildings in Harlem and Washington Heights. Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
