NY AG shuts Basic Group, bars the architect who signed its plans

The New York Attorney General’s Real Estate Finance Bureau on September 15 announced settlements that dissolve Basic Group, a Brooklyn architectural expediter firm operating as a division of PCM Architect PLLC, and permanently bar its owner, Wing Huang, and licensed architect Kevin McCray from doing business with the New York City Department of Buildings. The action, brought with DOB and HPD, covers renovation applications at 191 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg that McCray certified for plans he did not prepare or review, including one requiring a Certificate of No Harassment the owner never obtained.

Why it matters

Self-certification is how most New York City alteration jobs reach a permit: the architect or engineer certifies compliance and DOB does not plan-examine the job. This goes at the expediter-plus-architect pairing itself, and at the CONH workaround, the control governing renovation around rent-regulated tenants in a pre-1974 multiple dwelling. That the state Attorney General brought it, not DOB alone, raises the exposure for anyone filing this way. For a contractor, builder or owner-rep, the decision this changes on Monday is whose certification they file under, and whether the CONH determination on a pre-1974 building has actually been made.

The numbers

Nine of the eleven DOB NOW filings at 191 Bedford Avenue name McCray, license 024548, as applicant, with Basic Groups Corp as filing representative and Blue Sky Group as owner. All nine are logged as Professional Certification review rather than standard plan examination. The two renovation jobs, stated at $166,920 and $52,000, both sit at On Hold, Administrative Action as of October 18, 2024. PLUTO lists the building as built in 1910, five floors, 16 residential units and 18 total, 10,150 sq ft on a 2,900 sq ft lot, zoned R6B.

The swap the AG describes is legible in the same record. The March 2022 initial filing covered the cellar and nine apartments. The April 2022 version dropped the cellar and apartment 3 for the first floor. An October 11, 2023 filing on the same job number restored the original scope and was approved on November 8, 2023.

The money is conditional: a $200,000 suspended judgment against Huang and a $100,000 suspended judgment against McCray, payable only on a breach of the settlement, not paid now. McCray filed 57 jobs for Basic between March 2021 and June 2022 without preparing or reviewing them.

What’s next

Basic Group was to be dissolved by August 26, 2026, and BlueSky Management NY, LLC must either obtain a Certificate of No Harassment at the affected buildings or provide affordable housing as the regulation requires. The instruments are Assurances of Discontinuance, negotiated settlements, not a complaint or an indictment. The release names only 191 Bedford Avenue and does not set out BlueSky’s precise role.

See our coverage of the DOB’s revocation of every Redcode site safety card and the New York market.