It's the Brian Lair Show on WNYC.

I'm Bridget Bergen, Senior Reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom sitting in for Brian today.

Now an update on the controversial bankruptcy sale of over 5,000 rent-stabilized

apartments owned by the real estate firm Pinnacle Group. Normally, bankruptcy cases like this

speed through the court system without much attention from the public. But on day one of Mayor

Mumdani's tenure, he thrust this case into the spotlight by promising the city would

intervene on the side of tenants in court due to fears that the proposed buyer, Summit Properties

USA, would continue to neglect the maintenance of the buildings.

WNYC and Gothamist housing reporter David Brand has been all over the story.

He was in the courtroom yesterday for nine hours, David. Oh, my gosh. And he witnessed the proceedings of the case. He joins me now to share what he's learned, both in the court and out. Welcome into the studio, David.

Thanks, Bridget. So before we get to yesterday's proceedings in court, you know, set the scene for us a little bit.

Why did Pinnacle declare bankruptcy last year? And what are the complaints of tenants living in their

properties? Sure. So this has been going on for a while before Mom Dani took office. But like you said,

he thrust it into the spotlight by declaring on day one that the city would intervene.

But some backstory here. All right. So Pinnacle purchased this huge portfolio of apartments

in four boroughs. Every borough except Staten Island 10 to 20 years ago. Conditions in a lot of

the apartments, especially in these older buildings in Brooklyn, have really

deteriorated. Tenants have organized for a long time to try to get repairs. There's a lot of tenants

dealing with crumbling ceilings, heat outages. One person submitted an affidavit to the court

describing how he moved into a new apartment and there was blood on the floor and maggots in the refrigerator that they had to clean up themselves.

So there's been a lot of problems, especially in these Brooklyn buildings, that tenants have had to deal with.

The landlord Pinnacle Group has struggled to fix a lot of those problems.

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