The properties are a 25-building package in full, all sharing the name of the real estate investment firm that bought them in 2006 and 2007, and the problems that came with the Ocelot Capital Group’s absentee ownership and subsequent abandonment in 2008. Those include holes in the floors and the ceilings, broken doors, vermin and mold, according to residents and the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Now the fates of these run-down buildings are diverging. While tenants of the Omni buildings anticipate repairs and relief, the residents of the other former Ocelot buildings — purchased last spring and summer by Hunter Property Management and Paradise Management — are still waiting for a happy ending.
“We just lost them too early on,” said Megan Reed, an organizer with the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), a nonprofit advocacy group that’s fought to improve the plight of tenants in the 25 buildings.
New owner, new optimism
When mortgage-holder Fannie Mae attempted to sell the 14-building portfolio at auction this summer, the city stepped in, hoping to spare tenants from another cycle of speculation and abandonment. Officials created a review process for potential owners, resulting in the Omni selection, which the homesteading board terms “a victory.” (See How To Structure A Good Purchase of Bad Debt, City Limits, July 27, 2009.)
“We made a commitment to the residents that we would not allow the buildings to fall into the wrong hands and let the cycle repeat itself,” said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in a statement.
Other local luminaries spoke glowingly of Omni’s development record, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, and HPD Commissioner Rafael Cestero.
Co-owned by former New York Mets first-baseman Mo Vaughn along with Eugene Schneur, Omni has already committed $1 million for emergency repairs for the time between now and when the company takes ownership, which may be as long as a year from now.
“Once we finish the foreclosure process, we’re going to do a big rehab in the neighborhood of $30 million,” said Schneur. “It’s a full overhaul: roofing, brick pointing, some of the buildings are missing whole staircases and floors.”
Taking it to the bank
Rafael Almonte’s apartment in the Soundview section of the Bronx has 43 building code violations, according to the housing department, including lead paint, mold and rats. But the broken kitchen tile where his 2 ½-year-old son Etan tripped and broke his teeth bothers Almonte, 27, the most.
After five calls to the super, he tried to fix it himself, but the hot water pipes beneath the floor kept bursting and the tile buckled into jagged peaks again. Now a gate keeps his two young sons from the kitchen and, he hopes, future accidents.
On a chilly morning in November, Almonte took a half-day off from his job at a grocery store to huddle in the parking lot of a Bronx strip mall. He stood with eight other tenants wearing blankets knotted around their necks like capes. They seemed small and insignificant even in a small, insignificant place. Many had never protested before and rather than waving signs, they clutched them.
