535 W. 160th St Co-op Cited for Rear Wall in Danger of Collapse
A Class 1 ECB violation also lists a loose parapet and spalling stucco. The same owner was cited a week earlier for a failing cornice.
The Department of Buildings cited the owner of 535 West 160th Street in Washington Heights on Sept. 28 for a rear-yard masonry wall that was “leaning and in danger of collapse due to tree growth,” per violation 39205837Y. The respondent is 535 West 160 St HDFC, the co-op corporation that owns the 21-unit building.
Why it matters
An HDFC, or housing development fund corporation, is a limited-equity co-op for lower-income New Yorkers. Shareholders collectively own the building and carry its repair bills, so a facade problem lands on the residents’ own budget. The same violation lists a loose parapet with spalling stucco. It is the second Class 1 (immediately hazardous) ECB violation against the HDFC in a week: violation 39204861J, issued Sept. 21, cites a cornice stone between the 4th and 5th floors. Each carries a $2,500 penalty, with nothing paid, and a hearing set for Dec. 3. The building also shows 24 open HPD violations out of 90, including 4 open Class C. We found no vacate order tied to the new citations.
The numbers
The Sept. 28 violation was issued under Section 28-301.1, failure to maintain a building in a code-compliant manner. It is a Class 1 citation with status ACTIVE and a pending hearing. The Sept. 21 cornice violation is the only other ECB violation on the building’s record. The building is a 5-story new-law tenement with 21 residential units, per HPD building data. HPD’s separate file shows 90 violations, 24 still open. A 2014 partial vacate order for fire damage also appears in HPD’s file; the data does not say whether it was lifted.
What’s next
Watch the Dec. 3 hearing outcome and whether DOB posts a vacate order or an emergency repair filing for the rear wall. The public record text is cut off, so the full list of defects on the Sept. 28 violation is not visible to us. The ECB record page itself was not reachable for us, so these figures come from the city’s open dataset. For other Manhattan building-safety filings, see our New York market page.
On the record
What we checked ourselves, and where you can check it too.
- Public recordECB violation 39205837Y was issued Sept. 28, 2026 to 535 West 160 St HDFC under Section 28-301.1 (failure to maintain building in code-compliant manner), severity Class 1, status ACTIVE, penalty $2,500 with nothing paid, hearing Dec. 3, 2026 (pending). Its text says a rear-yard masonry wall is 'leaning and in danger of collapse due to tree growth' and a parapet has loose masonry and spalling stucco. The public dataset cuts the text off mid-sentence at 'decorative metal'.View the record on data.cityofnewyork.us
- Public recordA second Class 1 ECB violation, 39204861J, was issued to the same respondent a week earlier on Sept. 21 for a cornice stone between the 4th and 5th floors with separating, deteriorating masonry joints. It carries a $2,500 penalty and a Dec. 3 hearing. These are the only two ECB violations in the dataset for BIN 1062844.View the record on data.cityofnewyork.us
- Public recordThe building is a 5-story new-law tenement with 21 residential units (HPD building 42863). HPD lists 90 violations since records began: 66 closed and 24 open, including 4 open Class C (immediately hazardous) and 3 open Class I. DOB lists 9 active violations from 1993 to 2019, mostly boiler filings. HPD's vacate file shows only a partial vacate order from January 2014 for fire damage (3 units), and we found no vacate order tied to the Sept. 2026 violations.View the record on data.cityofnewyork.us
Sources
- NYC Open Data, DOB ECB violations, 39205837YClass 1 violation, issued Sept. 28, 2026, respondent 535 West 160 St HDFC, penalty $2,500, hearing Dec. 3, 2026
- NYC Open Data, DOB ECB violations, 39204861JClass 1 violation, issued Sept. 21, 2026, cornice stone in disrepair between the 4th and 5th floors
- NYC Open Data, HPD violations, 535 West 160 Street90 HPD violations on record, 24 open
- NYC Open Data, HPD buildings, BIN 10628445-story new-law tenement, 21 Class A residential units