City Hall danced on the grave of a dead Brooklyn landlord who left behind three derelict buildings with over 1,000 property violations – as Mayor Zohran Mamdani took credit for the effort as part of a crackdown of bad landlords ofrent-stabilized buildings.
Mamdani took the victory lap in a press release Thursday, announcing the deceased Rubin Dukler’s neglected Crown Heights buildings were sold to a Mark Schwartz, who is planning to remedy the 88 units in close coordination with the Housing and Preservation Department.
“The tenants of the Dukler Tenant Union have suffered from neglect and disinvestment for years,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Today, a new chapter begins for these buildings.”
The Mamdani administration helped facilitate the sale of the building by utilizing the HPD’s Alternative Enforcement Program – which targets dilapidated buildings with severe violations. As a result the HPD will have to make emergency repairs at the properties. 0
One osberver said the sale is a “genuine success story” for the buildings’ tenants – who have been organizing against Dukler for years – but warned the move signals Mamdani’s commitment to cracking down on private owners of rent-stabilized buildings.
“This is a clear signal from the Mamdani administration that chronic neglect is going to be met with escalating enforcement,” said real estate attorney and partner at BlankRome Massimo D’Angelo.
“And that the city is going to actively work to transfer ownership of these buildings and similar type buildings, you know, from non-compliant owners, and transfer them ultimately to set up tenant ownership,” he said.
Tenants of the buildings had been organizing for years to get emergency repairs fixed.Google Maps
Dukler – who was routinely featured on the Public Advocate’s “worst landlord’s list” – died in 2022, and had a history of open violations on his portfolio dating back to before 2002.
He sold a 50% stake in his portfolio to Iris Holdings Group for $6.2 million in 2017 – but the sale resulted in a years long legal battle over management and upkeep duties between the two entities, according to previous reporting by Curbed.
Following his death, tenants were left in limbo for nearly four years without a clear building management structure, and formed the Dukler Tenant Union in 2025 to transfer ownership away from Dukler’s estate.
The buildings landlord passed away in 2022, and the building was sold to a Mark Schwartz on Wednesday.Google Maps Now, HPD claims it will continue to work with Schwartz and the building tenants to ensure the new ownership will “adequately invest” in repairs and maintenance.
“We will work alongside tenants and the new owner to put these 88 homes on a path toward stability and make clear that every New Yorker deserves a safe, well-maintained and stable place to call home,” Mamdani said.
A long-stalled Upper East Side development site once envisioned as the home of a 1,000-foot-plus skyscraper is back up for grabs — this time with a $360 million price tag.
The six-parcel assemblage at 143-161 E. 60th St., directly across from the Bloomingdale’s flagship and steps from Lexington Avenue, last traded for $300 million in 2015.
Now, more than a decade later, the seller is seeking $60 million more for the roughly 20,000-square-foot site, which offers about 283,000 square feet of development potential.
Bloomingdale’s flagship sits directly across from the $360 million development site.vacant – stock.adobe.com
And unlike the last time the property changed hands, the old buildings that stood on the lot are now gone, leaving developers with a cleared site and a rare chance to make their mark on the Manhattan skyline.
The property’s zoning allows for residential or commercial development and, crucially, has previously been marketed as allowing a tower without a height limit — opening the door for a future developer to once again shoot for the sky.
Manhattan’s skyline could get another 1,000-foot-plus addition if the long-stalled East 60th Street site is finally developed.Paul Martinka
But buying the dirt could be just the beginning of the bill.
Listing broker Marlon Schwarcz estimates that developing a high-end project on the site could require roughly $500 million on top of the land acquisition.
“Usually, you look at 2 times from whatever the acquisition price is” as a typical indication of the capital needed for a project, Schwarcz said. “Now, for the ultra-luxury, you go 3 times the original acquisition.”
At the $360 million asking price, that could put the overall investment needed for an ultra-luxury project in the neighborhood of $1 billion.
At the other end of the spectrum, Schwarcz said the site could be developed as affordable housing, which he estimated could cost roughly $100 million to $300 million to build.
Some of New York’s biggest builders are already circling.
Schwarcz said he has received offers from major developers, including players with projects on nearby Billionaires’ Row.
Billionaires’ Row developers are among those eyeing the $360 million Upper East Side site, according to the listing broker.Christopher Sadowski
“I can’t say the names,” he said. “But what I can tell you, it’s top 10 — often people that are doing projects on Billionaires’ Row.”
Offers began arriving roughly 30 days after the property hit the market, he said, and Schwarcz believes a deal could be reached within about 90 days.
A decade of sky-high ambitions
Chinese developer Kuafu Properties bought the six-property assemblage from World Wide Group for $300 million in 2015, when its low-rise buildings included the longtime home of the beloved Subway Inn, which had been forced to relocate as redevelopment plans took shape.
Kuafu, led by Shang Dai and Zengliang “Denis” Shan, had much bigger ambitions for the corner.
The developer commissioned prominent architecture firms to dream up competing visions for the site — several of which could have extended the supertall boom that transformed Billionaires’ Row northeast toward Lenox Hill.
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners devised a 62-story, 1,000-foot residential tower in 2015, with a slender glass design rising above a retail base. Kohn Pedersen Fox later produced its own potential supertall concept as part of a private design competition, envisioning an exceptionally slender tower broken up by a series of setbacks and cutouts.
Archilier Architecture proposed perhaps the most audacious version: a roughly 1,240-foot tower with an inverted-taper design that widened as it rose, putting its largest floors — and prized Central Park views — near the top. At that height, it would have ranked among New York’s tallest residential skyscrapers.
A 1,000-foot-plus tower on East 60th Street could bring Billionaires’ Row-style heights to the Upper East Side.Paul Martinka
None made it off the drawing board.
The project then became tangled up in a shakeup at Kuafu. In 2016, the Real Deal reported that Shan was leaving the development firm to launch his own venture, with the East 60th Street site among the projects going with him.
The sheer amount of money required to build on the site helps explain the challenge facing any developer hoping to finally turn those sky-high ambitions into reality.
Nearby 432 Park Ave. offers a glimpse of the kind of supertall development once envisioned for the East 60th Street site.Robert Miller
“If you don’t have enough investors that want to invest alongside with you, everything is on your shoulders,” Schwarcz said. “Regardless of how wealthy you are or how big you are, it’s very unlikely you’re going to accomplish this development.”
Years of work have nevertheless changed the property dramatically since its last sale. The six buildings have been demolished, leaving the assemblage cleared and ready for its next act.
The six buildings at 143-161 E. 60th St. have been demolished, leaving the $360 million site cleared for development.Google Maps The seller, meanwhile, isn’t desperate to make a deal.
A fancy event venue under theQueensboro Bridgehas illegally claimed a public city plaza as its own for the past decade while charging customers up to $300,000 a pop to rent it, a new lawsuit alleges.
The Manhattan operators of Guastavino’s have even been aided in their illicit ruse thanks to a reputed shady set-up with the local police precinct, court documents claim.
Local Sean Basinski wants the DOT to open the underused lot next to the Queensboro Bridge to the public.Instagram/parknotdump
“This case is about the brazen and illegal seizure of public space by a high-end private event company and a commercial real estate developer who, on a daily or near-daily basis, evict the general public from a public plaza in Midtown Manhattan,” alleges the class-action suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week.
“Plaintiffs bring this case to return this small garden to public use and to right the wrongs that Defendants have caused by their illegal actions.”
Guastavino’stold amNYthat it “acknowledges that this is a public plaza’’ and that it is working with the city to “come up with a path forward.” The venue did not immediately respond to a Post request for comment Sunday.
Guastavino’s event venue is located at 409 E. 59th St in Manhattan.Google Maps
According to the lawsuit, the city-owned plaza — part of a massive parcel first purchased in 1900 for the construction of the iconic bridge — was meant to be “a sitting area accessible to the public.”
But the venue’s bosses decided they’d rather act like they owned the place, the suit says.
They illegally blocked out taxpayers with fake signs and security guards while hawking it for posh weddings and galas, according to the filing.
The lawsuit, also brought by a Brooklyn mentalist, a Manhattan grad and a veterinary technician, demands a judge formally declare the plaza public land and force the venue to hand over its ill-gotten gains.
The Queensboro Bridge, which connects Manhattan with Queens, is seen circa 1915.Getty Images
A plaintiff in the suit, Sean Basinski, said Guastavino’s security forced him off the property when he attempted to use it as a workout space during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
In 2023, he was escorted off the property again, with workers claiming the public plaza was “part of the event space” and alluding to how the NYPD “understands, in the Community Affairs division, what the arrangement is,’’ court documents claim.
On other occasions, Basinski demanded to see Guastavino’s lease proving it was private, and the workers told him the signs stating it was private was “sufficient legal basis,’’ the suit says.
During a wild December 2025 confrontation, venue boss Louis Rose declared the plaza was “my property” before grabbing Basinski’s belongings and hurling them into East 59th Street, court papers allege.
A venue worker then slapped a phone out of Basinski’s hand before 19th Precinct cops arrived, with the officers cuffing him and charging him with trespassing, the suit claims.
The charges were tossed, but when Basinski returned to the area in April, he was threatened several times by venue workers, court documents allege.
According to the lawsuit, the city-owned plaza — part of a massive parcel first purchased in 1900 for the construction of the iconic bridge — was meant to be “a sitting area accessible to the public.”Stefano Giovannini
“This time, you’re going to get locked up — you’re going to go to the hospital, then you’re going to go to jail,” a worker said, according to video and the suit.
When officers were eventually called on him for reading a book in the spot later that month, they assured him it was private property, despite Basinki demanding proof for their claim, the suit says.
An officer from the 19th Precinct told him “I don’t need paperwork,” before seven officers escorted him away, the suit alleges.
A Police Department rep told The Post on Sunday, “The NYPD will decline comment on pending litigation.”
