Brooklyn, NY – On Wednesday, July 15th NYS Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon and NYC Council Member Lincoln Restler joined tenants of the five Riverside Buildings, housing advocates, and community members to urge the owner, Pinnacle Group and CEO Joel Wiener, to address chronic neglect that has left the Brooklyn Heights rent-stabilized buildings in dire condition. Attendees also highlighted the potential mass displacement of residents through Pinnacle’s notorious pattern of neglect and recent offering plan for condominium conversion.

Pinnacle has a track record of deferred maintenance, displacement of tenants, and aggressive tactics against rent-stabilized residents, and has been the subject of extensive investigative reporting. Pinnacle recently filed a preliminary offering plan for Riverside’s condominium conversion, commonly known as a “red herring.” Although the plan is characterized as a "non-eviction" conversion, such conversions are commonly used to pressure long-term rent-stabilized tenants out of their homes through refusal of renewals, buyout campaigns, and prolonged neglect. 

Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon said, “In 1890, renowned architect Alfred Treadway White built the Riverside Buildings to be affordable housing for working class tenants. He believed that working people deserve safe and affordable housing. More than a century later, today’s tenants are fighting for that basic promise. In this increasingly expensive neighborhood, protecting our remaining rent-stabilized housing is more important than ever. Notoriously bad landlords like Pinnacle cannot be allowed to neglect their buildings – in this case for decades – and put tenants’ health and lives in danger. I will fight with the tenants of the Riverside Buildings for repairs, accountability, and the right to stay safely in their homes. And, we urgently need city and state agencies to ensure the landlord makes repairs and to restore the legal rent.”

Council Member Lincoln Restler said, “Pinnacle Group is attempting to displace longtime tenants in one of the last remaining bastions of affordable and rent-stabilized housing in Brooklyn Heights amid an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis. The company’s unconscionable treatment of their tenants at the Riverside Apartments is part of a broader pattern of neglect and abuse that’s designed to push tenants out. The Riverside tenants, many of whom have called our community home for decades, deserve safe and dignified housing and a life free of harassment from their landlord. They’re not alone in this fight — we won’t give up until Pinnacle Group ends its abusive treatment.”

"Our neighbors at the Riverside Buildings want the same thing we all want: safe, stable homes where they can live dignified lives with their families," said State Senator Andrew Gounardes. "For more than a century, these buildings have been a bastion of affordability in a city facing an unprecedented housing crisis. That's why it's so infuriating that Pinnacle Group is putting profits over tenants' well-being. Enough is enough. It's time to end the abuse and ensure residents have the quality housing they deserve."

In the 1990s, the Riverside Tenants Association (RTA) won a lawsuit against the landlord after the central courtyard was illegally paved as a parking lot, securing a rent freeze for tenants. 20 families are now fighting eviction in housing court after the state’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) overturned a rent freeze which allowed the landlord to claim significant rental arrears. The RTA's attorney is filing an Article 78 in state court to challenge the DHCR rent restoration that has placed the building's rent stabilization status at risk. 

Hew Evans, resident of Riverside, said, “No one should have to worry that the place they call home is making them sick. For months, residents, including myself, have endured painful rodent mite infestations and other unsafe conditions while our landlord has failed to provide a solution. We’re asking Pinnacle Group to stop treating tenants as disposable and start treating these buildings like the homes they are.”

“These aren’t just standard maintenance issues — they’re the brutal reality of living in a home that’s been severely neglected for years. We’ve endured leaks so bad that I’ve had to stay up all night during storms to empty buckets of water. We’ve had collapsing ceilings, rodent infestations, and now mites from the vermin. We’re not asking for anything extraordinary; we’re asking for a safe home and a landlord who fulfills their responsibility,” said Jean Campbell, resident of Riverside since 1973. 

“We are not asking for anything luxurious but to have a home that’s adequate to be able to sleep, eat, bathe, and to not worry about mice getting into our food. When I say I’m having a mice problem, it’s so bad that my daughter started naming them, ‘Well, that’s Josh over there.’ That is not ok. When I complained about the mice, I was told to get a cat. We aren’t a corporation or just a building. We’re humans, not just units. We are humans, tenants, mothers, daughters, grandmothers who deserve water that’s not brown and stairs that are safe to climb,” said Farhia Hagi, Riverside tenant.

"Riverside was built more than 130 years ago as a pioneering model of affordable housing for working families. Today, Pinnacle Group is taking tenants to housing court while an illegally paved courtyard remains unusable and long-standing maintenance issues go unresolved. We are calling on HPD, HCR, and every relevant agency to come to the table, enforce the law, and protect one of Brooklyn Heights’ last significant rent-stabilized communities," said John Leyva, Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union. 

Residents highlighted the well-documented housing violations and maintenance issues, including leaks, mold, collapsing ceilings and staircases, severe rodent and mite infestations resulting in body rashes and public health hazards, heat failure, water shutoffs and other unsafe conditions. The five landmarked Riverside buildings are made up of 156 rent-stabilized apartments and eight commercial units (10, 20, & 30 Columbia Place and 24 & 32 Joralemon Street).

Built in 1890 by philanthropist Alfred T. White, the Riverside Buildings were designed as one of the nation’s first model tenements and were praised by housing reformer Jacob Riis as “the beau ideal of the model tenement." For more than 130 years, the complex has housed working families. Today, those apartments represent one of the last significant remaining rent-stabilized housing stocks in Brooklyn Heights, one of New York City's most expensive neighborhoods, where median rent across the surrounding Brooklyn Community District 2 rose nearly 90% between 2010 and 2020.

Videos of the event can be found here and here. Photos available upon request.