“100 Worst” Landlord’s Reward for Fires, Evictions, and Violations: Prime Public Land at 388 Hudson Street

By Andrew Berman

New York City’s chosen developer for a roughly 400-foot-tall “affordable housing” development on city-owned land at 388 Hudson St. (at Clarkson Street) was named near the top of the list of the 100 Worst Landlords in NYC by the Public Advocate. This list is designed to allow “tenants, public officials, advocates, and other concerned individuals to identify residential property owners who consistently flout city laws intended to protect the rights and safety of tenants.” Rankings are based upon the number of open violations by each owner during the one-year period covered by the survey.

On top of this, the developer, Camber Property Group, was also the co-owner and sole manager of the Twin Parks Northwest tower in the Bronx, which was the site of one of the deadliest fires in New York City history. The 2022 blaze resulted in 17 deaths, including nine children, and injured dozens more. The cause of the fire was blamed on a lack of heat in the building requiring tenants to use dangerous space heaters to survive in winter and one sparked the fire. Defective safety systems in the building, about which tenants long complained, were also a factor for the high death and casualty toll.

Unfortunately, Camber’s troubling track record doesn’t end there. At other low-income/affordable housing projects Camber has built, bought, or managed, public records show a disturbing pattern of increased complaints, violations, and evictions after they take over, and a steady (sometimes overwhelming) stream of evidence of poor and even dangerous stewardship of their buildings.

For months, we’ve been asking for answers from city officials about choosing Camber to develop 388 Hudson St. The decision was made in the final days of the Adams administration, but is continuing under the current one. So far, we’ve only gotten responses from Camber and their defenders. They say the for-profit low-income housing developer often purchases distressed properties where they inherit problems, which they then diligently work to improve, but those fixes can’t all be done overnight. Fair enough. But the public record paints a very different picture of what actually happens at Camber properties.

We’ve found many examples of Camber purchasing a property ─ and almost immediately the number of complaints filed by residents climbs precipitously, often for the most serious of offenses. But it’s not just complaints. Violations then issued by the city ─ again often for the most serious of offenses ─ also grow in number and severity after Camber’s purchase. On top of all this, eviction proceedings by the owner against tenants often grow dramatically too. Tenants quoted in the press say this is retribution for filing complaints about building conditions.

Even if one could somehow explain this dynamic with buildings Camber purchases, it’s much harder to explain their record with developments it builds, which would be the case for 388 Hudson St. Public records show numerous examples of multiple serious violations issued by the city during the construction of the building, followed by the same pattern of numerous complaints, violations, and eviction proceedings beginning almost immediately after occupancy, and often growing in number from there. No legacy of deeply embedded problems inherited from prior owners — no matter how dubious an explanation that may be for issues with buildings Camber purchases — can be pointed to as a potential cause of, or even contributor to, this troubling pattern with projects Camber builds from scratch.

This issue becomes all the more pressing as the process for approving the 388 Hudson St. project is poised to begin soon. We have been raising this for months, along with several other serious concerns about elements of the plan for development of this city-owned site, with little or no response from city officials or the local Community Board. Those in favor of the project say the affordable housing and new public recreational facilities it will contain are sorely needed.

We couldn’t agree more. But that doesn’t mean one has to accept a developer with the worst track record imaginable to build and operate it, nor that we have to demolish the landmarked and beloved Tony Dapolito Recreation Center across the street, in order to make it happen. These are among the many troubling elements of this plan we are seeking to change because we know our neighborhood and our city deserve better.

You can learn more and help by going to villagepreservation.org/388Hudson.

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Andrew Berman is executive director of Village Preservation. villagepreservation.org