Flippin’ rotten!
Tenants slam Cohen as a lousy landlord
Add shady construction permits to Michael Cohen’s laundry list of legal troubles.
Besides cheating on his taxes, lying to banks and violating campaign finance laws while working for President Trump, public records show that Cohen’s partners in three apartment buildings submitted documents falsely indicating they housed no rent-stabilized tenants, the Daily News has learned.
Meanwhile, residents filed complaints about noisy construction at the properties — and rent-stabilized tenants moved out.
Between 2011 and 2014, Cohen flipped the three buildings for an $18 million profit.
His tenants weren’t so happy. “They’re not good landlords,” said one tenant who lived for eight years in a 21-unit building at 172 Rivington St. owned by Cohen.
Cohen bought the 172 Rivington property, in the heart of the Lower East Side, for 2011 for $2.1 million, and sold it in 2014 for $10 million.
During Cohen’s short stint as a landlord, nine construction applications were filed by his partners, the Vintage Group, indicating no rent-stabilized tenants lived there.
In reality, 20 stabilized tenants lived there, according to Department of Finance records. By the time Cohen flipped the property for a $7.9 million profit, only 11 rent-stabilized tenants were left.
Scheduling repairs was a hassle and workers always did a shoddy job, the tenant said.
“I didn’t know (Cohen) was the landlord. I could see why they obscured that information,” the tenant added.
As rent-stabilized tenants left the building, the remaining tenants filed complaints.
“My half stabilized half recently destabilized building (due to gut renovation) is being used as a hotel & is listed on AirBnB,” one resident complained to the Department of Buildings in 2012.
Aaron Carr, executive director of the Housing Rights Initiative, said the records were a telltale sign of construction harassment — and standard practice for unscrupulous landlords seeking to drive out rent-stabilized tenants, allowing the apartments to be rented for market rate.
The construction permits certifying there are no rentstabilized tenants note that false information is a misdemeanor that can result in a fine and imprisonment. Cohen, as an owner, is liable for the statements on the permits, Carr said.
“Most tenants aren’t so willing to give up their affordability in the midst of an affordable-housing crisis. You have to threaten their safety and sanity,” said Carr, whose tenants’ rights group pulled the records.
Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight felonies. He said he’d facilitated hush money payments to two women who claimed to have had affairs with President Trump. He said he made the payments “in coordination” with Trump, who was then a candidate for president. After his plea, Cohen started a GoFundMe page to help with legal bills.
Back in 2011, Cohen threw around millions of dollars in the New York real estate market.
Just as with his Rivington St. property, Cohen turned a tidy profit reselling a 20-unit building at 235 E. 27th St.
Cohen bought the building for $4.5 million in 2012 and sold it in 2014 for $8 million. During that period, four construction applications were filed by his partners at Vintage Group declaring no rent-stabilized tenants were in the building. But records show there were eight stabilized tenants.
Vintage, which owns and manages real estate around the city, reportedly was Cohen’s joint venture partner in the properties. The company’s principal, Eric Nelson, did not respond to an email.
Residents at the E. 27th St. building made three complaints about construction during Cohen’s reign as landlord.
“They started the construction all at once,” one tenant said. “We were paranoid. We didn’t know what was going to happen. When a building is sold you never know, we’re stabilized ... things went downhill after he bought it.”
The tenant, who’d lived in the building since 1998, hadn’t realized Cohen was an owner until the day he pleaded guilty.
Only five rent-stabilized tenants remain in the building.
Cohen flipped a five-story property at 237 Henry St. in 2014 for a $5.7 million profit after owning it for just over a year. Nine construction applications were accompanied by 17 complaints. The number of rent-stabilized tenants held steady at 20 while Cohen owned the building — but in 2016 it dropped to five.
A building at 330 E. 63rd St. that Cohen bought in 2015 for $58 million has not seen a similar decline in rent-stabilized tenants. He recently sold four stakes in the building for $8.9 million.
Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis did not respond to a Daily News inquiry. He previously told McClatchy Newspapers that the sales of the buildings — some of which were made in cash — were above-board.