Summit Says It Cleared Half of Violations in Pinnacle Portfolio

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Summit Properties is claiming a win.

The company says it has fixed more than 3,000 housing code violations in its new portfolio in just two months. That means it has made good on a commitment made at a bankruptcy auction to fix half of the violations in the distressed group of buildings, according to a spokesperson.

But the major tenant group organizing the portfolio doesn’t see it that way.

Although Summit may have fixed half of the thousands of violations that existed when it made the commitment in January, the city has since gone on an inspection blitz and added 6,000 more. Now, the Union of Pinnacle Tenants says Summit is behind on its obligations.

Summit fought with the city for the right to purchase the distressed portfolio, after tenants called the company a “slumlord.” But after winning that fight and taking over the 5,100 mostly rent-stabilized apartments, the company now finds itself in an ongoing public relations campaign, as tenant groups and public officials scrutinize its stewardship.

The Mamdani administration took a special interest in the case and tried unsuccessfully to convince a U.S. bankruptcy judge to stop the sale. As that case played out in January, Summit chair Zohar Levy promised that the company would remedy half of the thousands of housing code violations in the portfolio within two months of closing.

“We have met our commitment: more than half of the 6,300 violations that existed at the bankruptcy hearing have been cured,” Summit spokesperson Jordan Barowitz said in a statement. “Our focus has been on apartment repairs and common areas — nearly every lobby has been painted, and hundreds of apartments have been repaired and remediated.”

Curing violations is different from clearing them with the city, which requires an inspector to access the apartment or common area. But Barowitz said the company plans to continue improving apartments while beginning capital work on building systems, including roofs, elevators and boilers.

Levy said the company would spend $10 million on repairs in the first year of ownership and $5 million each year thereafter, totalling $30 million in five years.

The Union of Pinnacle Tenants is a group organizing tenants across the 93 buildings in the portfolio. The group says Summit is behind schedule by more than 2,780 violations.

The two sides are squabbling over the numbers and the promise, but also the larger issue of who is responsible for stabilizing the portfolio. Summit is eager to show evidence of its good stewardship, while UPT is at the same time eager to count good behavior by Summit as proof of its leverage and power.

“The Union of Pinnacle Tenants celebrates its first victory at the bargaining table,” the group said in a release Monday announcing that Summit said it would not pursue rent arrears that predated its ownership of the buildings.

Officials in the Mamdani administration have supported the tenants’ group and similarly characterized commitments from Summit as concessions won through organizing.

“[The Mamdani administration] took a historic step to intervene on behalf of Pinnacle tenants and secured important commitments from Summit,” Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and a former tenant organizer, said in the UPT release. “[W]e continue to coordinate with UPT to ensure that tenants see the improvements they were promised.”