One of Brooklyn Heights’ last affordable complexes is falling apart
Mites, brown water and a mouse named Josh. Plus more neighborhood news.
Above the idyllic River Deli, at the southwest corner of Joralemon Street and Columbia Place, a decadeslong dispute between the tenants of Riverside Buildings and a New York City landlord has dragged on — and the tenants have had enough.
The dispute began back in 1991, when the previous owners paved over the buildings’ courtyard area to create a parking lot without required approval. Riverside tenants filed complaints about the loss of courtyard use and, in 2000, the state’s housing agency ordered the owner to fix the courtyard and issued a rent freeze and reduction.
Pinnacle Group, the buildings’ current landlord, bought the buildings in 2002, according to public records, but it took until 2024 for the landlord to restore the courtyard. Over the years, Pinnacle repeatedly tried, unsuccessfully, to build a parking garage in the courtyard.
Now, tenants say the state housing agency has lifted the rent freeze, and that Pinnacle is demanding back rent and trying to force them out to convert the buildings to condos. They say that they have been living in unsafe conditions, with mites, cockroaches, brown water and dead rodents in the walls.
“Tenants have been sickened, hospitalized and even forced from their homes,” said Kathleen, a member of the Riverside Tenants Association who only gave her first name, at a July 15 rally outside the buildings. “It is the latest chapter in a decadeslong pattern of neglect and disregard for the people who call this building their home.”
There’s a lot to lose, speakers at the rally emphasized. Riverside is a place where working families and artists can still afford to live, in an affluent brownstone neighborhood where rents average $6,162 per month, according to RentCafe.
The deteriorating conditions affect generations of tenants, said Farhia Hagi, a resident who moved in during the pandemic. Hagi said the mouse problem is so bad that her 14-year-old daughter started naming the mice. “‘Well, that’s Josh over there,’” Hagi said, quoting her daughter.
Hew Evans’ battle has been with a nearly invisible pest. The mites in his apartment have cost him more than $1,000 to fight, and two months of “itchy, burning pain from these mites and the resulting rashes,” he said. “It’s embarrassing and it’s an affront to human dignity.”
Jean Campbell, who moved into a ground-floor unit in Riverside in 1973 when she was on the lookout for an affordable unit where she could fit her piano, said she’s had to manage persistent leaks over the years.
“I have routinely had buckets and tarps ready to catch water run-off from leaking pipes in the apartments above,” Campbell said. “This led to ceiling collapse in the bathroom, the kitchen and three areas in the sitting room, as well as destruction of the tiling on the bathroom wall.”
Crumbling ceilings, leaks and infestations mark a long fall from what the Riverside Buildings were built to be. Philanthropist Alfred T. White built the complex in 1890, complete with open ironwork stairwells, a turfed courtyard, fountain and outdoor stage for Saturday concerts. Rents ran $8 to $11 a month, and White returned a month’s rent to any tenant who caused no damage that year.
The same buildings — 10, 20 and 30 Columbia Place and 24 and 32 Joralemon Street — now carry 82 open violations with the city’s housing department, 74 of them at 10 Columbia Place alone. Among the violations: visible mold, defective faucets, and cockroach and mouse infestations.
Pinnacle has gained a reputation for poorly maintained buildings, racking up thousands of open housing code violations over the years across its portfolio.
In May 2025, the company filed for bankruptcy, nearly two months after Flagstar Bank moved to foreclose on many of its buildings. Earlier this year, real estate firm Summit Properties USA bought more than 5,000 rent-stabilized apartments, a 93-building portfolio, from Pinnacle. Riverside was not among the buildings sold.
City and state officials, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Attorney General Letitia James, fought back against Summit’s purchase. James and other officials raised concerns about Summit’s own issues maintaining rent-stabilized units, and close family ties between Pinnacle CEO Joel Wiener and companies connected to Summit.
The latest Riverside dispute lands amid a citywide crackdown targeting “repeat-offender” landlords. The day after the rally, Mamdani released the Rental Ripoff Report, a 23-point plan to hold negligent landlords accountable, including steeper penalties and heavier enforcement of housing code violations.
Pinnacle has “categorically waged war on their tenants for decades,” Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon said at the rally. “They are engaging in a well-known pattern, a long-standing pattern, common among people who are doing that sort of thing, that is to harass people, to fail to repair, to make people want to move out.”
Pinnacle is suing more than 20 tenants for up to $30,000 each, Kathleen said, claiming that restoring the courtyard entitles it to increased rent dating back to September 2024. The tenants have launched a GoFundMe to help cover their legal fees.
Ken Fisher, a longtime attorney for Pinnacle, said he couldn’t provide any information “beyond what is on the court docket.”
Councilmember Lincoln Restler said he and Simon are working closely with the city and state housing agencies and the mayor’s office to push for more consistent inspections at Riverside. The rent increases at stake would double, triple or nearly quadruple some tenants’ bills, Restler added.
“The conditions here are despicable and Joel Wiener should be ashamed of himself,” Restler said. “We are going to fight with these tenants every damn step of the way, because this is affordable housing.”
Heights Happenings
Confidant made it onto the Michelin Guide, meaning the restaurant is under consideration for a Michelin star or Bib Gourmand.
Montero has new merch.
Workout studio F45 Training is hosting a free outdoor workout class at Pier 2 in Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 23 at 7 p.m. Sign up here.
There’s a coastal cleanup event at Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 26 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. More details here.
Councilmember Lincoln Restler and the Sanitation Department are talking to neighbors about the expansion of on-street trash bins in Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill and Downtown Brooklyn on July 23 from 3 to 4 p.m. Sign up here.
Curious about what organisms live in the East River? Brooklyn Bridge Park is hosting a series of sessions where participants can catch and release marine life and learn more about what’s really in there. The sessions are on July 25 from noon to 2 p.m., Aug. 1 from 5 to 7 p.m. and Sept. 26 from 3 to 5 p.m.
Nearby News
The New York City Economic Development Corporation held a public info session about the Brooklyn Marine Terminal project on July 14. Here’s some basic information about the development, and what residents said they were worried about:
The site runs from Pier 7 at Atlantic Avenue in the north to Pier 12 at Wolcott Street in Red Hook to the south.
The 122-acre development would bring 6,000 housing units, a new public school, a 400-key hotel, a greenway connecting Brooklyn Bridge Park to Atlantic Basin and at least 28 acres of public open space to the Columbia Street Waterfront and Red Hook.
At the meeting, residents raised concerns about the sheer size of the project, increased truck traffic, the dangers of building in a flood zone and pollution from more ships in the area.
Design studio Hudson Wilder is bringing a rotating lineup of emerging chefs to its studio at 142 Plymouth St. in Dumbo for a summer Saturdays yakitori grill residency. The series will take place every Saturday from July 25 to Aug. 29.
Cantonese American restaurant Sal Tang’s in Cobble Hill is closing. The restaurant, run by Sal Lamboglia of Swoony’s, Cafe Spaghetti and Bar Ferdinando, will have its last day of service on Aug. 1.
Saturn Road is looking for artists to submit artwork for its next group show, “A Woman’s Work: The Art of Womanhood.” The submission deadline is Aug. 16 and the show will run from Sept. 7 through Nov. 13.
Clay Crew Ceramics is hosting a pottery painting party in June Wine Bar’s garden at 231 Court St. on Aug. 18 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are limited.
Threes Brewing Gowanus is throwing a party to celebrate its newest IPA, Open Channel, and honor 20 years of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy on July 24 starting at 5 p.m. at 333 Douglass St. A portion of sales of Open Channel will be donated to the conservancy.
In more Threes Brewing news, Good Time Pilates is having a Sunday Funday event with the brewery on July 26 at 11 a.m. It’ll be a 50-minute mat class in the Threes space followed by beers.
I am not curious what organisms live in the east river actually