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Tenants at a large Upper West Side apartment complex rallied this week, demanding repairs and accountability from their landlord amid a broader city settlement over building violations.
Residents of the Holland Apartments — a three-building, 425-unit complex located at 120–160 West 97th Street and 135 West 96th Street — gathered Monday morning alongside elected officials to protest what they described as ongoing quality-of-life and safety issues, according to reporting from PIX11 News.
Tenants say they have dealt with sporadic and inadequate heat, cracked and moldy walls, gas outages that have left some residents relying on hot plates instead of full stoves, and a non-functioning laundry room. Some residents fear the prolonged conditions are part of a strategy aimed at “constructive eviction” of rent-regulated tenants.
The demonstration comes just days after the city announced a legal settlement with A&E Real Estate, the owner of the Holland complex, requiring the company to pay a $2.1 million fine and correct roughly 4,000 housing violations across 14 buildings citywide. Protesters on the Upper West Side are now calling on the administration to expand the settlement to include their buildings as well.
Housing advocate Sia Weaver, now a senior member of the Mamdani administration, attended the rally and said the city is exploring additional ways to hold landlords accountable.
A spokesperson for A&E Real Estate told PIX11 News that ongoing gas outages at the Holland are complicated to resolve and blamed delays on the approval process with Con Edison. The company said it has tested 96 percent of the apartments required for gas restoration and plans to replace aging pipes that are contributing to the problem.
Con Edison, however, said gas service will be restored once all required work is completed and verified, adding that the timeline depends on when the landlord finishes the necessary repairs.
The Holland complex has been under financial scrutiny in recent years. In 2025, The Real Deal reported that A&E Real Estate had put the property on the market, seeking roughly $200 million — significantly less than the $287 million the firm paid for the complex in 2018. Nearly 60 percent of the apartments at the Holland are rent stabilized, and many units carry preferential rents, which real estate analysts have said has weighed on the building’s valuation.
For tenants like Donna Sayers, who spoke at Monday’s rally, the focus remains on immediate living conditions.
Residents say they plan to continue pressing the city and their landlord for repairs — and for inclusion in the enforcement agreement — as they wait for long-delayed improvements inside their homes.
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