{"id":92013,"date":"2026-01-07T05:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T05:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/92013\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T05:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T05:15:13","slug":"nyc-fights-sale-of-bankrupt-rentals-after-mamdani-blasts-living-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/92013\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC fights sale of bankrupt rentals after Mamdani blasts living conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newly-inaugurated New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s housing agenda is facing its first test as the city balks at the\u00a0bankruptcy sale<\/a>\u00a0of thousands of rent-stabilized apartments owned by Pinnacle Group, where residents have railed against living conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City authorities on Monday\u00a0asked<\/a>\u00a0a bankruptcy judge to delay a Chapter 11 auction scheduled for Thursday, saying they need more time to both evaluate a proposed $451 million deal to Summit Properties USA and \u201cexplore any potential alternatives.\u201d After the buildings were put into bankruptcy last year, Summit offered to buy dozens of buildings in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx and Queens in the form of a stalking horse bid, meaning the transaction is subject to potentially better offers at auction.<\/p>\n

Advisers representing the bankrupt properties haven\u2019t provided the city with information about Summit\u2019s ability to consummate the proposed sale or whether it is willing and financially able to repair the buildings, New York City Corporate Counsel\u00a0Muriel Goode-Trufant<\/a>\u00a0said in a court filing. The Pinnacle-owned buildings owe the city $12.7 million for unpaid debts and housing violations, the city said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompletion of the bankruptcy auction process will bring financial stability along with the opportunity to stabilize services, outcomes which we would expect the City would not want to disrupt,\u201d Pinnacle lawyer Ken Fisher said in an email. Summit didn\u2019t immediately return a message Tuesday seeking comment.<\/p>\n

The challenge follows an assertion from Mamdani, just hours into his term as mayor, that the city would intervene in the bankruptcy to protect tenants. It foreshadows the 34-year-old\u2019s ambitious plans after he campaigned with a relentless focus on affordability, particularly around housing, ahead of his ascent to chief overseer of the most populous city in the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Residents have dealt with a lack of heating, roaches and \u201cthe kind of conditions that no New Yorker should have to live through,\u201d Mamdani\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0at a press conference after touring a Pinnacle-owned building in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

A number of residents in Pinnacle buildings organized in response to what they have described in letters as \u201cyears of mismanagement and neglect\u201d and\u00a0won support<\/a>\u00a0from other elected city officials before Monday\u2019s court filing. Pinnacle placed the buildings into Chapter 11 in May carrying more than $500 million in mortgage debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur intervention in the Pinnacle case shows we are walking the walk, and fighting to ensure any outcome from this case improves living conditions and protects affordability for Pinnacle tenants,\u201d said Cea Weaver of the Mayor\u2019s Office to Protect Tenants.<\/p>\n

The city also raised concerns about the economics of the proposed deal on Monday, saying advisers overseeing the bankrupt Pinnacle buildings haven\u2019t demonstrated the properties can support the proposed sale price or ongoing maintenance costs given that the apartments are rent-regulated. Advisers also haven\u2019t provided New York City authorities with a comprehensive assessment on what repairs the buildings require, the city said.<\/p>\n

The proposed sale also wouldn\u2019t result in \u201ca supportable business\u201d so-long as the bankrupt properties have rent-stabilized or rent controlled apartments because the current rents \u201care very low-averaging,\u201d the city said in its court filing. That could mean that the task of addressing emergency repairs might fall upon New York City authorities or tenants themselves, or pressure residents to move out, the city said.<\/p>\n

Advisers have blamed the bankruptcy on rising interest rates and inflation-driven increases in operating expenses and lower rent collection. Tenants at multiple Pinnacle properties have\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Bloomberg News that the company has for years either failed or been slow to respond to requests for repairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Summit owns a swath of properties, including regional malls as well as NYC apartments and office properties in Manhattan, according to the firm\u2019s website. The proposed sale of the Pinnacle buildings must be approved by Judge David Jones, who is overseeing the bankruptcy case.<\/p>\n

\u201cContinuing losses and mounting expenses might lead to the need for additional bankruptcies or reorganizations, a state of financial and social chaos potentially worse than the current situation of the debtors themselves,\u201d the city said.<\/p>\n

The case is Broadway Realty I Co. LLC, number 25-11050, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newly-inaugurated New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s housing agenda is facing its first test as the city balks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[384,23736,2907,9,24,55,54,56,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-92013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-bankruptcy","9":"tag-chapter-11-bankruptcy","10":"tag-housing","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-city-news","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}