Apartment Look

Kushner Companies hit with rent-stabilization lawsuit in Brooklyn Heights "Ignorance, indifference or utter disregard of the law." From left: Jared Kushner, Laurent Morali and 89 Hicks Street (Credit: Getty Images, CUNY TV and Google Maps) Kushner Companies violated rent -stabilization laws at a building the company owns in Brooklyn Heights , a new lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit, which seeks class action status , comes at a time when the company is already facing scrutiny over its ownership and management of a massive multifamily portfolio with hundreds of rent-stabilized units across the city, and puts a further spotlight on Jared Kushner, the former CEO of the firm and top White House adviser who continues to hold a stake in the Brooklyn Heights property . For years, the 48- unit apartment building at 89 Hicks Street was a servant to institutions. It was first converted to religious housing for the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1989, and later became a dorm for Brooklyn Law Schoo...

The long retail spine of Sydney Road, Brunswick, just north of Melbourne's CBD, was once a prosperous trading outpost on the way to the goldfields. These days it's a bohemian mix of variety stores, op shops, halal butchers and Lebanese bakeries. Take a side street to the west, however, and a different picture emerges. Sandwiched between Sydney Road and the Upfield train line is an area undergoing rapid and widespread transformation. Light industry is fast being replaced by mid- rise apartment buildings , their inhabitants attracted by the short commute into town and cheaper prices than in the city's south-east. The quality of these units is, on the whole, depressingly bad; think poor ventilation and bedrooms that "borrow" natural light (a weasel word for being dark and windowless). The occasional jazzy façade tries feebly to make up for otherwise cheap construction amid a chorus of greys. At ground level, carpark roller doors alternate with mean pocket garden...

The long retail spine of Sydney Road, Brunswick, just north of Melbourne's CBD, was once a prosperous trading outpost on the way to the goldfields. These days it's a bohemian mix of variety stores, op shops, halal butchers and Lebanese bakeries. Take a side street to the west, however, and a different picture emerges. Sandwiched between Sydney Road and the Upfield train line is an area undergoing rapid and widespread transformation. Light industry is fast being replaced by mid- rise apartment buildings , their inhabitants attracted by the short commute into town and cheaper prices than in the city's south-east. The quality of these units is, on the whole, depressingly bad; think poor ventilation and bedrooms that "borrow" natural light (a weasel word for being dark and windowless). The occasional jazzy façade tries feebly to make up for otherwise cheap construction amid a chorus of greys. At ground level, carpark roller doors alternate with mean pocket garden...