Guttman Back in the Hot Seat
Mister Warm and Fuzzy himself, landlord and developer Joshua Guttman, is under fire again by residents of one of his buildings. No, it’s not for burning the place down. The list of complaints by the buyers of his six-story condo development at 50 Bridge Street is long: leaky roof, crummy ventilation, weak water pressure and…
Mister Warm and Fuzzy himself, landlord and developer Joshua Guttman, is under fire again by residents of one of his buildings. No, it’s not for burning the place down. The list of complaints by the buyers of his six-story condo development at 50 Bridge Street is long: leaky roof, crummy ventilation, weak water pressure and almost non-existent insulation. “This guy built a piece of junk,” said lawyer Adam Bailey. “He’s basically ruined these people’s lives.” The scariest aspect of his alleged negligence? The sixth floor addition was built atop a “cockloft” – an unobstructed, building-wide open stretch through which fire would spread quickly. “This guy was sent by the devil,” says Bailey. Anyone have a good photo of the building?
Inferno Landlord an Infernal Landlord [NY Post] GMAP
Don’t You Want to Just Hug Him? [Brownstoner]
No surprise. I agree, you see his involvement, run away. Amazing is his conversion project right across the street. It has the same fire-trap design as 50 Bridge Street. My fear is that he’ll walk away from these bdlg’s and they’ll be left to rot, and maybe even “catch fire”.
There is a way to put this guy out of business – it’s called smart shopping. You see Guma Construction or Joshua Gutman anywhere near the building and you refrain from buying. If everyone was a little more careful about who they buy real estate from and what they pay for it, everyone would be much better off. Unfortunately, people in this city and everywhere have the attitude that buying an apartment (or a house) is like buying a piece of candy. They hire lawyers, but pay them so little that the lawyer can only do the bare minimum — which is to make sure they get clean title. No one ever reads the offering memorandum for these condos thinking that it’s nothing more than a formality. Interesting how when one spends $3M on a house, they have it inspected by an engineer, an inspector and anyone else they can think of. When they go to buy an apartment, they assume for some reason that the quality is there because it’s called “luxury” apartments. Very often, the only thing that’s luxurious is the price….
I now live around the corner from this buidling but actually looked at these condos a couple years back. I walked away after seeing the oddly chopped up layouts and cabinets that were uneven and on closer inspection had exposed screws (and not the head end).
In other anti-gutmanism news one of his construction trucks recenly backed into my car doing about $800 in damage and fled the scene. I have license plate from a witness but the cops just shrugged and said since no one was injured its a closed case. Guma Construction (his company) will no longer return my calls though initially they responded and even had me get an estimate from one “of their guys”. Ugh.
Is there no way to put this guy out of business?