Tenants Tackle 'Morally Reprehensible' Landlord In Park Slope

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — When Anh-thu Nguyen learned in March that the new owners of the 70 Prospect Park West apartment building where she'd lived for 11 years wouldn't be renewing her lease, it didn't take long to figure out she was not alone.

Messages from tenants — many of whom have lived in the pre-war complex for decades — quickly flooded a group chat neighbors had started during the coronavirus pandemic.

Soon, it became clear all tenants whose leases were set to expire this summer, with the exception of 10 rent-stabilized units, had been sent the notice that they would have to leave in 90 days.

"It was like, 'Oh, we're all getting these,'" Nguyen said. "It's very jarring... especially in the middle of a pandemic."

But perhaps the more jarring surprise came when the Prospect Park West tenants began researching their new owners, Greenbrook Partners.

Their Prospect Park West building wasn't the only one Greenbrook had bought in Brooklyn in the last year — it was one of at least 30.

Part of a Pattern

Tenants at Prospect Park West, who recently formed a tenants association, and Council Member Brad Lander's office have identified at least 53 Brooklyn buildings Greenbrook has bought since 2015, nearly half of which are found in Park Slope. An analysis by PincusCo Media estimates that the number might be closer to 80.

More than 30 of the 53 buildings were snatched up by the company in 2020 and 2021, according to the research.

And the Prospect Park West tenants aren't the only victims of the buying spree.

"Now that we're talking to each other and we're sharing information — We're seeing across the board what's happening to us is part of a pattern," said Nguyen, who is president of the building's tenant association.

The 70 Prospect Park West association has so far made contact with tenants in eight of Greenbrook's other recently-purchased buildings, largely by going door to door.

In some buildings, all the non-rent-stabilized tenants had already moved out, leaving those that remained living in a construction zone as the vacated units are renovated to be put back on the market, Nguyen said. In at least one, tenants have already filed a lawsuit against Greenbrook for failing to make repairs, documents show.

The research is quickly revealing what Lander said is a "morally reprehensible but fascinating business model" similar to strategies landlords used to empty rent-stabilized buildings before a series of tenant protections passed in New York in 2019. Now, it seems the aim has shifted to buildings with a mix of market-rate and rent-stabilized units, he said.

"It seems once rent laws got tightened in 2019 some of that money came back to neighborhoods where you have buildings that were half or more deregulated," Lander said. "This is the first model of a predatory equity fund... that exists to profit by kicking people out of their homes and then doubling and tripling the rents."

After ending the market-rate leases, the company starts doing construction "in a way that's designed to be really difficult to live with," likely to drive out the remaining rent-stabilized tenants, too, Lander said.

At 70 Prospect Park West, Nguyen said that at least one already-vacated unit that was last rented out around $4,000 has returned to the market with an $8,000 per month price-tag.

An apartment down the hallway from her and a previously-vacated unit directly above her's have both been going through renovations.

"The market-rate tenants are low-hanging fruit — if they push us out then the goal is making life hard for rent-stabilized units," she said in a phone call with Patch during which she had to move to the hallway because of construction noise. "It's very clear this is a landlord that is out to push out anyone."

According to its own website, Greenbrook "targets investments in underperforming, poorly maintained, mismanaged and undercapitalized assets" in areas of New York City poised for growth and uses "rigorous property management, asset management, repositioning and redevelopment" to turn a profit.

"There’s a reason to think that they’re doing this in every building they’re buying," Lander said.

The company declined to comment for this story after asking for a list of questions from Patch.

"We Intend To Stay"

The pattern has left tenants across Greenbrook buildings fighting the clock as they explore options for staying in their homes.

At 70 Prospect Park West, tenants have been considering legal action given the fact that market rate units might have been illegally destabilized under a former landlord.

That might be the case for Adam Gaynor, who has lived in various units in 70 Prospect Park West since 2000.

But still, the potential for recourse hasn't fully quelled anxiety surrounding his family's June 30 move-out date. He and his wife, who have two children, have been searching every day with little luck for an apartment in their price range close enough to family, friends and their daughter's school.

"There's nothing to rent right now," said Gaynor, who runs a consulting firm for nonprofits. "In any other place in the country I'd be doing just fine, but I'm being priced out of the city in which I've spent most of my life and in which I was born."

The process has only been made more difficult by the coronavirus pandemic, which not only limits the ability to shop for an apartment in person, but has left many tenants struggling to find the bandwidth to fight the non-renewal notices, he added.

"Their whole strategy is not just a strategy for profitability, but a strategy with complete disregard for people," Gaynor said. "It's designed to capitalize on people in their worst moment."

Tenants who are organizing in other buildings have been exploring different strategies, including filing complaints with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development surrounding the construction or other harassment, organizers say.

A broad approach to take aim at Greenbrook's investors has also been underway. Specifically, both Lander and tenants have written to the Texas Permanent School Fund, a fund created to help public schools in Texas that contributed at least $100 million to one of Greenbrook's major backers, NW1 Partners, according to the Real Deal.

The hope is officials behind the school fund will be more responsive to public accountability than private investors, Lander said.

"We are making the case to the Texas state Board of Education to withdraw its money from NW1," Lander said.

Lander has also pointed to potential legislative solutions, including a "Good Cause Eviction" bill facing the state legislature for a second time.

The idea for the bill when it was introduced in 2019 was to protect tenants in low-income areas with absentee building owners, Lander said, but its restrictions on rent increases, lease non-renewals and evictions would also make it harder for displacement strategies like Greenbrook's.

"Lo and behold good cause eviction is also needed by middle-class tenants in Park Slope who moved into a market-rate unit," he said.

In the meantime, organizers are continuing to try and reach tenants in all of Greenbrook's buildings in the hopes of mustering more organizing power and, perhaps more importantly, ensuring tenants know their options.

Nguyen, who works in labor organizing, has taken to calling the fight her "full-time job that doesn't pay." For her, giving in to Greenbrook is not on the agenda.

"People should know that they have agency and the right to fight for their homes," she said. "The long and short of it is, I know my rights and I don't plan to leave. Me and my roommates, we intend to stay."

If you are a Greenbrook tenant in Brooklyn or have a tip you'd like to share with Patch, please reach out to Anna.quinn@patch.com.