By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD — Two days after tenants of an Academy Street apartment building were evacuated due to dangerously unstable conditions, local politicians called on the city to spend $20 million to fix the decrepit building and prosecute the building's slumlord owner.
Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez and State Senator Adriano Espaillat said 552-556 Academy St. has been allowed to fall into structural disrepair for at least ten years as a result of the negligence of absentee owner Rachel Arfa, the principal at Ocelto Capital Management and Ocelot Properties Management.
"It is now time for the City of New York to recognize that major reconstruction is the only option," Rodriguez said, calling for the tenants "who have contributed to the city for decades" to be given "a decent apartment where they could live."
Calls to Ocelto Capital Management and Ocelot Properties Management reached a recording, which stated the two companies "have ceased operations and will no longer operate any properties." Arfa is still listed as the deed holder of 552-556 Academy Street.
This is not the first of Ocelot's buildings to come under fire for shoddy conditions. In 2007 and 2008, ten of Ocelot Capital Group's 25 properties in the Bronx were included in a list of the city’s worst buildings. The buildings had a combined list of 5,000 "serious and immediately hazardous housing maintenance code violations," according to a New York Times 2009 report.
Rodriguez and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer allocated a combined $1.5 million last year for the reconstruction of the Academy Street building.
Iris Bertoni, a representative of the building’s tenant association, was among the tenants of 30 apartments that had to be evacuated from the building on Friday afternoon after the Department of Buildings issued a partial vacate order for the 76-unit apartment building.
Bertoni said Sunday that the the city should step up and make the repairs to help tenants, many of whom she said are seniors in poor health, to return to their homes.
"We all deserve to move forward with our lives while living in a safe building," she said.
The DOB also issued a violation to the building owners for "structural stability and egress issues," according to the department's website.
A sign posted on the door by the DOB stated that the building was shut down for "failure to maintain" the building, with defects including structural cracks throughout the building, sagging floors and roof, leaning parapets, exposed electrical wiring, a defective chimney and collapsing concrete.
Whether the tenants will soon be allowed to return home is uncertain and the Red Cross is still working with tenants to find them temporary shelter.
Elected officials said officials will determine the fate of the building on Tuesday morning.
