Mysterious Fires Plague Williamsburg Condo Building Owned By Trump's Son-In-Law
Why is it that this does not surprise me?????
Residents of a high-priced apartment building in Williamsburg are gripped with paranoia following a series of mysterious fires that management is blaming on a resident pyromaniac. The block-long rental building, 184 Kent Avenue, is a century-old warehouse that Jared Kushner, a real estate developer and Donald Trump's son-in-law, bought for $275 million and started converting to condos last April, along with Asher Abehsera's unfortunately monikered LIVWRK and the Boston private equity firm Rockpoint Group.
There's a snag in the condo conversion process, though: previous owner, Jason Halpern's JMH Development, was building condo apartments in the former Austin, Nichols & Co. wholesale grocery distribution center just after the 2008 economic collapse, and amid the fallout, switched to marketing them as luxury rentals. In the process, the company applied for a tax abatement through a program called J51, which made the apartments rent-stabilized until 2025, and thus harder to empty for would-be buyers.
One resident who moved into the building two years ago and, like most tenants we spoke to, asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, said that after Kushner and friend bought the building, many tenants had their rent increased by $400 or $500. This was possible thanks to a loophole in the lease that they had overlooked, which deemed their previous rent preferential, a legal term for a rent-stabilized rate that is below what could technically be charged. A one-bedroom in the building last year rented for $3,500.
