They’re also happy to take full price.
Dime transferred Ocelot’s original $13 million loan to Suzuki in May, an amount that UHAB finds too high. “Anybody else would have looked at those buildings and said, ‘No way,’” says Dina Levy, UHAB’s director of organizing and policy.
Suzuki said his properties were not overpriced or overleveraged: “We buy properties based on valuation of affordable housing.”
In fact, he would have liked to buy more. His company signed a no-cash deal to take on Ocelot’s debt with Fannie Mae in November 2008, but he never made payments. In October, he talked about buying Ocelot buildings again—this time the 14-building portfolio just won by Omni.
Dime asked to make change
Tenants of the Hunter-owned buildings sent a letter to Dime earlier this fall asking for enforcement of the repair clause.
“The bank basically said, ‘Thank you for your concern, it’s not something we can take up,’” said Dan DeSloover, a homesteading organizer. According to his colleague Levy, “Banks don’t want to be in the business of managing properties. But Dime is equally culpable. ...Unfortunately, predatory equity left thousands of units across the city in this predicament and the whole process was enabled by banks underwriting loans.”
So last month, tenants crowded into the Dime branch in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx and told employees that they were moving in.
“We can’t do anything about this. Could you please step outside? You have to call the main offices,” assistant branch manager Michelle Lopez told the assembled. “We’re working. We’re not responsible for this.”
The tenants obliged and stepped outside, chanting slogans along the lines of, “Hey, Dime, our buildings are a crime!” for about 20 minutes. After calls to the main office and the police, Dime announced that it would meet with tenants. The meeting took place a few days later. It was decided that Hunter should raise a modest amount of money for emergency repairs from outside investors, according to Levy.
She is doubtful about Hunter’s ability to raise the money and said that even if it does, the amount would be futile given the buildings’ deterioration—they all require major work. She is, however, encouraged by the fact that another meeting is scheduled for December with the bank, the tenants and Hunter.
“It went from, ‘We won’t meet with you and if you don’t like it you can find another place to live’ to ‘Let’s meet again soon,’” said Levy.
“We always intended to be a positive community loan-maker,” said Ken Ceonzo, the director of investor relations at Dime. “We are more than happy to sit down with the parties and come to a mutually beneficial outcome with the situation involved.”
Of a mutually beneficial outcome, Ceonzo said that, ideally, “Tenants will be happy, they will begin to pay their rents again. The new owners will be able to pay their mortgage.”
Additional reporting contributed by Della Hasselle.
