Bronx Landlord With 109 Open Violations Loses Entire Building to Fire

HPD ordered the entire 27-unit building at 1773 Vyse Avenue in the Bronx’s Crotona Park East vacated on September 22 after fire damage, city records show. The building’s corporate owner, Drylawson Realty Corp, with agent 1773 Vyse LLC and head officer Paul Stein listed on the HPD registration, was already carrying 109 open Housing Maintenance Code violations against the property before the fire forced everyone out.

Why it matters

An entire-building vacate order is the harshest outcome HPD can impose short of demolition, and it lands hardest on the 27 households who now have to find somewhere else to live with no notice. For developers and investors watching the Bronx multifamily stock, a walkup this deep into violation territory, 77 of the 109 open items rated Class C, the code’s own “immediately hazardous” tier, was already a candidate for a forced sale or a receivership fight before the fire made the decision for the owner. A landlord who lets a building reach 109 open violations is not absorbing a bad month; that is a portfolio-level failure to maintain basic services, and it is the kind of record that draws HPD’s Alternative Enforcement Program or a housing-court 7A administrator next.

The numbers

HPD’s violation log shows five open Class C nuisance violations specifically citing fire damage, at apartment 54 on the fifth floor, apartment 33 on the third floor and apartment 43 on the fourth floor, logged during a September 16 inspection, six days before the building-wide vacate order took effect September 22. The same inspection cited failures to provide hot water, cold water, electric service and gas to fixtures in those units. Of the 109 total open violations at the property, 5 are Class A, 25 are Class B and 77 are Class C, according to HPD’s Housing Maintenance Code Violations dataset queried against the building’s block and lot.

What’s next

HPD’s registration lists Paul Stein as both the agent for 1773 Vyse LLC and the head officer, with a mailing address on East 55th Street in Brooklyn shared across Drylawson Realty Corp’s other filings. A full vacate order typically forces either a rapid repair plan filed with HPD or a sale, since the building cannot legally hold occupants while the order stands and the accumulated Class C violations do not clear on their own. Whether the displaced tenants get relocation assistance through HPD’s Emergency Repair Program or end up in a prolonged fight over their tenancy rights is the open question for New York housing advocates and for any buyer weighing whether to take on the violation backlog. The case adds to a run of distressed Bronx multifamily stories this month, following a 290-unit Bronx portfolio’s pre-foreclosure filing.