What’s it like to be made a monster? Douglas Eisenberg can tell you. The mayor of New York City sticks a podium in your building lobby, riles the crowd about “settlement day” and tells a story.
“When [tenants] hear the words ‘A&E Real Estate,’ they think of mistreatment and neglect, violations and appalling living conditions,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at the Jan. 16 press conference, two weeks into his term. “Thousands of our neighbors live in rent-stabilized units managed by A&E. Thousands of our neighbors contend with daily misery as a result!”
The conclusion: A&E must pay. The penalty is $2.1 million and a commitment to cure 4,000 violations across 14 buildings. The mayor will “monitor” the rest of his holdings going forward.
Mamdani made Eisenberg the official new face of the bad landlord. And since January, Eisenberg's been getting it from all sides.
In February, he defaulted on a $506 million loan tied to a 3,500 unit portfolio of rent-stabilized buildings. In June, the RGB passed a two-year rent freeze, killing any hope for more revenue, not that a single-digit hike would have moved the needle on expenses. Days later, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who’d quietly invested in A&E, cut and ran out of one of its funds, taking pennies on the dollar for his share.
The fire-sale amounted to a vote of no confidence in Eisenberg and the failing asset class he bound himself to when the climate favored owner over tenant.
