Three rent-stabilized buildings in Crown Heights that racked up nearly 1,000 open code violations under one of the city’s most notorious landlords have officially changed hands, capping years of tenant organizing, housing court battles, and city enforcement. The properties — 1018 Eastern Parkway, 1074 Eastern Parkway, and 1392 Sterling Place — have moved to new ownership under real estate investor Mark Schwartz, who also serves as Mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey.
The Mamdani administration celebrated the transfer, according to Bisnow, with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants both pledging to work with Schwartz and tenants going forward. Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani personally celebrated the deal, and city officials say the agreement with Schwartz commits to rehabilitating all three buildings with tenant oversight, moving toward eventual resident ownership. HPD and the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants say they will ensure 88 units are rehabilitated as part of the arrangement.
Dina Levy, cited in the same report, said tenants deserved congratulations for finally moving away from a predatory owner. The Dukler Tenant Union, which officially formed in 2025 after tenants began organizing at the three buildings back in 2018, reached its own agreement with Schwartz that tenant advocates describe as a hard-won step after nearly a decade of pushing for repairs and a change in ownership away from the Dukler family.
A Landlord’s Long, Documented Record of Neglect
The buildings’ troubled history traces back to Rubin Dukler, who died in February 2021; the properties were later transferred. Dukler landed on the New York City Public Advocate’s Watchlist of the city’s worst landlords twice, ranking 11th in 2017 and 17th in 2019, according to Patch. Separately, tenants cited 561 open housing-code violations in a lawsuit…