By Patrick Donachie
Public Advocate Letitia James has released her list of the 100 worst landlords throughout New York City and the landlord at No. 1 is the landlord for two buildings in Queens.
In top place, Harry D. Silverstein is the landlord for 575 separate units in eight different buildings throughout the city. Silverstein is the landlord for 39-30 59 St. in Woodside, and is also the landlord at 87-40 165th St. off Hillside Avenue in Jamaica Hills. He runs a single building in Kingsbridge in the Bronx, with the rest of his properties located in Brooklyn.
Silverstein’s buildings had 2,032 violations from the Housing and Preservation Department, and was also saddled with 50 open Department of Buildings violations, according to the public advocate’s office. A significant percentage of Silverstein’s DOB violations came from the Jamaica apartment building, with 17 open violations recorded by James’ office. However, the official DOB site puts the count even higher for the building, with 20 open violations according to the Buildings Department.
The charges in the DOB violations run the gamut, with many of the violations concerning additional warnings after cracks in the building’s southern facade were not repaired. The issue of cracks in the building seems to go back several years, according to the DOB violation reports. Another violation from Jan. 6 referred to a defective boiler.
Calls to Silverstein for comment were not returned.
The Woodside location had six open DOB violations, according to the department’s website. The Woodside building had two open violations for work being done without a permit, including the installation of six gas dryers and washers in July.
The annual list of worst landlords was started by then-Public Advocate Bill de Blasio in 2010. For the first time this year, the public advocate’s office incorporated information on DOB violations and Department of Finance data on unpaid debt that was sold through the city’s annual tax lien sale into its assessments of landlords. Representatives from James’ office also visited at least one building owned by each of the landlords on the list.
“Every New Yorker deserves a safe and decent place to live, and every apartment must meet basic standards of decency,” James said Oct. 13, the day of the list’s publication. “We will never stop fighting for the housing rights of every New Yorker.”
Silverstein was listed as the second worst landlord in the city in James’ 2015 list. The full 2016 listing can be found at www.landl
Reach reporter Patrick Donachie by e-mail at pdona
