House of Horrors Tenants Cheer New Owner
The beleaguered tenants of 621-627 Manida Street finally got their wish on June 12th, when their buildings were sold at a foreclosure auction to Omni New York LLC, a non-profit with a solid reputation for rehabbing decaying buildings quickly.
About a dozen tenants of the 112-unit complex, wearing t-shirts that read “Speculators Today, Slumlords Tomorrow,” attended an afternoon auction at Bronx Supreme Court on the Grand Concourse on June 12th, where they hoped to dissuade any other would-be landlords from bidding against Omni.
“I can’t take the smile off my face,” said Carmen Rodriguez, president of the complex’s Tenants Association after the court process. Rodriguez said she had feared a sale to one of numerous private bidders present at the foreclosure would have proven disastrous for tenants.
“We would have went through the same issues,” she said.
The tenants have endured balky plumbing, holes in floors, cracking ceilings, urine-soaked hallways, unsecured doors and broken down appliances. They often had no heat in winter and frequently went without electricity, they say.
The buildings collected thousands of violations, and two of them were on the Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development’s list of the 200 worst apartment buildings in the city because of the number of dangerous violations that went uncorrected.
The tenants said their pleas for repairs to the former landlord, the Ocelot Capital Group went unheeded. Ocelot, a private equity firm, bought 17 buildings in the Bronx and Manhattan in 2007, intending to push tenants out and raise the rents. But then the real estate bubble burst, and it found itself unable to pay its mortgages.
In early 2009 the tenants enlisted the assistance of the Hunts Point Alliance for Children as well as other advocacy organizations and went to court, and in June 2009, the government agency that owned the $5.9 million mortgage on the property foreclosed.
After months of uncertainty about the fate of their homes, and attempts by the city to provide short term solutions to some of the problems in the buildings, the tenants and their advocates, with the backing of public officials, pressed for Omni New York LLC to acquire the buildings, basing their choice on its reputation as a responsible landlord and manager of previously troubled buildings.
At the June 12 auction, a lawyer for Omni New York opened the bidding with a $1.3 million offer on the Manida buildings, and was unopposed despite the presence of numerous private speculators in the courtroom.
Bidders did go after other buildings in Ocelot’s portfolio in other sections of the South Bronx, but Omni won each auction.
Of the prospect that the other potential bidders might compete for the Manida Street buildings, Carmen Rodriguez said, “I could tell by looking at them they weren’t going to do the right thing.” She added she had met with a representative of Ocelot many times, and felt he was disrespectful to tenants.
The court process lasted about an hour, after which tenants ran down the stairs, one calling out “No more suffering!” while another sang the chorus to the ’80s R&B standard, “What a Feeling.”
“It was long and quick,” said tenant Alberto Rodriguez, who was surprised the auction went so smoothly. “Long because the process took forever.”
“We always prefer non-profit owners,” said Megan Reed of the housing advocacy organization, Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), which has been advising the Manida Street tenants. “As long as they’re endorsed by tenants, we’re in favor of it.”
Omni “had a quick turnaround on rehab quality work,” Reed continued, “and tenants love them.” She added the company has very few building violations on the many properties it owns or manages around the city.
The closing is expected to take place by September, and officials at Omni have said construction would begin within 30 days after that. They are projecting the rehab work will take about eighteen months.
by Joe Hirsch
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