pinnacle management

[zara]

Anyone know about this company? My impression: they bring eviction procedings against anyone who is a low paying tenant and hope they don't know their rights. Unfortunately, probably alot of their low paying tenants don't know their rights.

[zara]

I should add that (the notorious) Baruch Singer sold his buildings to Pinnacle (but still retains ownership.)

[Anna]

Various LLs with 'Pinnacle' in their names currently have 301 proceedings in Housing Court in 4 boroughs, mostly in Manhattan. None of them are 'Pinnacle Management'. Some of these Pinnacle entities have existed for over a decade.
(click http://nycourts.gov/ecourts/ then 'Court Calendars & Case Info' then 'Case Info')

A dozen properties were deeded to Pinnacle Amsterdam LLC in Manhattan in 09/05,some under Baruch Singer's signature. Check them all yourself and report back: http://nyc.gov/html/dof/html/jump/acris.shtml

Singer is no longer listed on the one HPD registration that I checked. Why don't you check them all and report back?

P-A LLC has 19 eviction proceedings pending in Manhattan, mostly against Ts w/ Hispanic names....

Google-search http://tenant.net/ for both TN only and the WWW for 'Baruch Singer' for more history on them.
Search also any & all local newspapers online.

Which Barry Singer? Both are notorious. Is yours the one who removed a staircase from a tenement in Manhattan Valley while tenants were still inside the bldg? or the other one?

[zara]

The only Barry Singer I know of is the one with properties in Manhattan Valley. One of the buildings he sold to Pinnacle, on Amsterdam Avenue, burned down shortly after the sale.

[Anna]

There are dozens of articles re Singer in the local papers over the last 10 years & available by going to each paper's website and using the search function. Here are some other articles:

http://nycworstlandlords.com/nycwl/index.php?id=9,33,0,0,1,0

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/10/26/435f33ec9cda2?in_archive=1
Singer Sells 104 Apartment Buildings
By Lauren Hovel
Spectator Staff Writer
October 26, 2005

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0107,lobbia,22268,5.html

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0026/lobbia.php

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/weeklyView.cfm?articlenumber=237
SINGER SINGS BLUE Baruch Singer, one of the city's most notorious landlords, may find that his recent purchase of a 52-unit apartment building from the feds will be rescinded because of his nasty reputation. > Julia Hood

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/weeklyView.cfm?articlenumber=149

http://www.bxtimes.com/News/2002/1128/Boroughwide_News/041.html

#

Exerpts from a couple of articles here on TN:

September 2000 — TENANT/INQUILINO

Slumlord Sale Scrutinized
By Julia Hood

Last month, the federal housing
department auctioned off a build-
ing to one of the city’s most no-
torious landlords, Baruch Singer
of Triangle Management. Singer
became infamous last fall and win-
ter in a series of New York Post ar-
ticles that portrayed him as an
old-fashioned slumlord, complete
with nasty pitbulls, lousy manage-
ment, and decaying properties.
That didn’t stop him from snap-
ping up the 52-unit building near
Morningside Park for $2.58 mil-
lion. But now, the federal Depart-
ment of Housing and Urban
Development is already having
second thoughts about the sale.
HUD, as mortgage insurer, is in
the process of repossessing the
building at 437 Manhattan Ave.
from its previous owners. The
property went on the auction
block last month.
Bidders did not have to meet
any special criteria, aside from
being able to pay the price tag.
But Singer’s sketchy record is
well known in New York City. He
owns an assortment of crumbling
Harlem buildings—one of the
buildings he’s involved with col-
lapsed in 1995, killing three
people—and has come under spe-
cial scrutiny from the city’s hous-
ing department lawyers for his
persistent maintenance prob-
lems.
Two days after the sale, the head
of HUD’s New York office told City
Limits that his office would be
launching an investigation into
Singer’s business practices and
won’t finalize the sale until it’s
convinced that Singer will take
care of the property.
“When HUD sells foreclosed
property, we are always concerned
about prospective landlords with
a history of deficiencies and viola-
tions,” said Charlie King, the
secretary’s representative for the
New York regional HUD office.
“Based on the information that we
have to date, this is certainly a
concern with respect to Mr.
Singer.”
Singer did not return repeated
phone calls made to Triangle Man-
agement. Conditions of the sale
include a rider that the purchaser
make about $600,000 in repairs
within one year, and maintain the
building as “affordable housing”
for 20 years.
Ivy Thomas, president of the
residents association, said ten-
ants are apprehensive. The build-
ing has 285 code violations on
record, according to the city’s
housing department, and tenants
have had to battle for vital repairs.
“We were scared already,” Thomas
said. “Now we really have to worry.”

http://www.tenant.net/Tengroup/Metcounc/Sep00/sep00.pdf

SLUMLORD GETS POL PALS' HELP
New York Post, November 10, 1999
By Jack Newfield

...

Baruch Singer, who acknowledges owning 40 buildings with 1,000 apartments north of
96th Street, wants the city to sell back a building it seized from him seven years
ago for nonpayment of taxes. He wants it now because the neighborhood is undergoing
an economic renaissance - and he's eager to profit from it.

Virtually every elected official who has had contact with Singer or his
long-suffering, low-income Harlem tenants has a low opinion of him and his pattern
of reneging on promised improvements. His critics include Assemblyman Ed Sullivan
and council members Bill Perkins, Ronnie Eldridge and Phil Reed.

"Baruch Singer is the worst slumlord I have ever seen in Harlem," Perkins said.
Perkins holds Singer "partially responsible" for the deaths of three tenants who
perished when a Singer slum at 142 West 140 St. collapsed in March 1995.

At the time, Singer was the building's manager and held its mortgage. He bought the
rubbled remains six months later. When the building collapsed from structural
decay, it had 337 city housing-code violations.

Shortly after the collapse, The New York Times identified Singer as the building
manager. It quoted the landlord, Marcus Lehmann, who named Singer's company -
Triangle Management, at 95 Delancey St. - as being in charge. Lehmann said he had
never even visited the site. In an interview with The Post this week, Lehmann
claimed the Times never interviewed him. Later, during a 90-minute interview,
Singer tried to blur reality with double talk.
...
Singer also has a 25 percent ownership in three Mitchell-Lama buildings on
middle-class Upper West Side streets: 70 West 93rd St., 50 West 93rd St. and 5 West
91st St. These sites have HUD-subsidized mortgages.

Singer's partner in these properties is his former lawyer, Leslie Westreich, who
was disbarred in 1991. "Leslie was disbarred for something totally unrelated to
real estate," Singer told me....

http://tenant.net/nytenants-announce/nytenants-announce.9911

Curiously, the NYTimes failed to mention his background in this more recent article, Singer section exerpted below:

October 5, 2003
For Rental Buildings, a Rising Market
By ALAN S. OSER

...

Dealing With Tenants in Shared Spaces
Owners' Opportunity

In Manhattan buildings, a significant percentage of newly arriving tenants are sharing, and the rents are coming from two, three or four individuals. Many sharers have gone into buildings owned by Baruch Singer and his partners. Mr. Singer, who operates 2,500 apartments in moderate-rent locations, says he has bought 20 buildings in the last three years. More than 40 percent of the new arrivals in his buildings are apartment sharers, he said. Of the rest, half are one-person households.

One recent purchase was the 55-unit building at 894 Riverside Drive, at 160th Street, near Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

He paid 10 times the rent roll there, he said, because the average rent was much lower than what would normally be expected. He suspected a high degree of illegal activity.

"From my experience, 10 to 15 percent of the tenants are illegally renting out rooms," Mr. Singer said. It is not unusual for the tenant to be collecting $1,200 a month in an apartment in which the landlord is collecting $400, he said. On some occasions the tenant has "sold" the apartment and moved out. The new "tenant" pays the rent with money orders using the name of the tenant on the lease.

Mr. Singer's efforts to evict these tenants keep his lawyers in Housing Court, where he estimates he initiates about 100 actions a year. The outcome is mixed, he said. Some tenants leave, some settle and some are evicted....

[glowramia]

wow... so I was browsing google about P A LLC... i basically rent one of their apartments in the UWS... after we had a little fire scare which damaged about two apt next building and a hardware store below us... pple began to rumor stuff, about prob being an excuse to get us out.. I dont know.. after reading this and stuff.. I just hope things will be fine but damn... evicting hispanics and stuff?

Makes me wonder if thats the reason why they want to remove the window gates with the excuse that..its against some violation w/o putting another one in, knowing that by removing it all increases the violation more.