BY CARTER MYERS-BROWN
Fourteen building workers at a Brooklyn apartment building receiving a property tax break will recover $419,000 in unpaid wages and benefits under settlements resolving years of prevailing-wage violations, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine announced Oct. 22.
The settlements involve 1237 Myrtle Holding LLC, the owner of 960 Willoughby Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn and two companies that manage the property or provide building services – Kai Management LLC and Ground Support Services. The 87-unit building receives a 15-year tax exemption under the city’s 421-a program, which offers tax incentives for residential development while requiring certain buildings to meet prevailing-wage standards for building service workers.
“Building service employees and doorpersons are on the frontlines of keeping New Yorkers’ homes safe and clean,” Levine said. “We cannot tolerate building owners – especially those benefitting from tax breaks – denying these workers their rightful wages and benefits.”
The settlements address separate violations affecting one building service employee and 13 doorpersons. The first, totaling $200,000, resolves allegations that 1237 Myrtle Holding and Kai Management failed to pay the required prevailing wages and benefits to one employee between January 2022 and February 2025.
The second settlement, totaling $219,000, involves 1237 Myrtle Holding, Kai Management and Ground Support Services. The companies failed to pay prevailing wages and supplemental benefits to 13 doorpersons between January 2022 and November 2025, according to the comptroller’s office.
Ground Support Services, Kai Management and 1237 Myrtle Holding could not be reached for comment.
Latest wage recovery by Levine
“Enforcing prevailing wage requirements is essential to protecting workers’ rights and holding property owners accountable, particularly when they benefit from substantial tax incentives funded by New York taxpayers,” said Claudia Henriquez, assistant comptroller for labor law. “These settlements send a clear message: the workers who maintain our city’s buildings must not be shortchanged or denied the compensation they are entitled to under the law.”
The 421-a tax exemption was designed to encourage residential construction while requiring covered buildings to meet prevailing-wage standards for certain building service workers. The settlements underscore the city’s efforts to enforce those requirements at properties receiving public tax benefits.
The latest settlements follow a broader push by Levine’s office to recover unpaid wages.
In May, the comptroller announced that his Bureau of Labor Law had recovered more than $1 million in wages, interest and penalties through five settlements finalized during his first four months in office, including cases stemming from investigations from 2017 and 2018.
The largest, a $618,495 settlement involving 24 workers on the reconstruction of Hunts Point Playground in the Bronx, followed a joint investigation with the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation that found subcontractors had underpaid workers, withheld supplemental benefits and required kickbacks. Investigators also found that managers had forged workers’ signatures on affidavits falsely claiming they had been paid in full.