VIDEO: Jared Kushner Williamsburg Apartment Rat 'Terrorizes' Baby

UPDATE Friday, Feb. 10: Tenants of Austin Nichols House issued to Patch several other complaints about the health and safety of their families in the Kushner-owned Williamsburg building.

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — A group of tenants who live in the Jared Kushner-owned Austin Nichols Houses in Williamsburg released a video of a rat repeatedly crawling across a baby's crib in the building, saying that is just one of several issues they've had with their building. The video recording shows the rat "terrorizing" a baby while he's sleeping in his crib in a third-floor apartment, according to the tenant group, called Austin Nichols House Concerned Renters.

"Despite repeated complaints about filth in our living environment, Kushner follows the mantra, 'Profits first, people last,'" the group wrote on its video caption.

A spokesperson for the building told Gothamist in an email that the management company has apologized to the mother of the baby.

"That is still no excuse for what’s portrayed in this video, and we have apologized to the affected tenant and already taken steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again," the spokesperson wrote. "Building staff responded within minutes to this incident and exterminators were on hand within hours. We take matters of tenant quality of life and safety very seriously, and we encourage all tenants to make building management aware of any issue immediately so that it can be remedied."

But tenants had a different story.

"The truth is that this was not an isolated incident, and there have been at least five others with live mice in their apartments," a spokesperson for Austin Nichols House Concerned Renters told Patch. "Whether they got apologies or not, I can't say, but they also live with mousetraps now. And some of those people have kids — babies — who are now exposed to the exterminator's chemicals being sprayed inside their units."

The Austin Nichols Houses are in the prime Williamsburg location of 184 Kent Ave. Kushner bought the building, which used to be old warehouse, with LIVWRK and Rockpoint Group for $275 million and converted it into the current 339 units. Its tenants have complained for months about strong gas odor, heavy construction debris and dust, bad security and pests like ants, and, yes, rats:

The Department of Health inspected the building on Jan. 30 and found there were mice inside and signs of them on the outside of the building, the department said. On Wednesday, the health department ordered the building's owner to get rid of the rats inside and outside, and if the rats are not gone within five days, the Environmental Control Board could issue a violation notice. Each violation from the board means a fine of at least $300.

"We issued a Commissioner’s Order ordering the landlord to remediate the conditions resulting in the mice infestation in this property. A compliance inspection will be conducted in the coming days to check on the progress of abatement efforts," a spokesperson for the city's health department said in an email statement to Patch.

Patch has reached out to Kushner Companies for additional comment.

>>>Read the full story of 184 Kent Ave.'s issues at Gothamist.

Lead photo via Kai Schreiber/Flickr/CC by 3.0