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At 2254 Crotona Avenue in the Bronx, one apartment was abandoned last year after parts of the ceiling collapsed

  As property owners run into trouble paying their mortgages, neighborhoods around New York City have been witnessing a disturbing consequence: Small and large apartment buildings are being abandoned in a state of disrepair, leaving tenants in limbo without basic services or even landlords.

In the Bronx, anybody can walk into a four-story building on East 178th Street near the Cross-Bronx Expressway. Someone took the front door off the hinges and sold it for scrap metal. Drugs have been sold out of vacant apartments.

“A nightmare,” said Cesar Guzman, 29, who lives in the building. “I can’t describe it as anything else.” Read more..

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SG2 mulls sale of Bronx rent-stabilized housing

The private equity-backed partnership SG2 Properties is considering selling several of its multi-family buildings in the Bronx.

“We are marketing a portion of our Bronx portfolio,” SG2 partner Stephen Siegel wrote in an email. “If we get what we think the properties are worth we will sell them.”

He would not confirm the number of buildings being offered, but several sources said that more than two dozen buildings with less than 2,000 apartments and about 50 stores could be sold.

The buildings include 1212 Grand Concourse and 2055 Anthony Avenue.

Many of the buildings were part of a $300 million, 51-building purchase by SG2 and partner BlackRock Realty Advisors in February 2007 from Bronx landlord Jacob Selechnik, sources said.

The city has seen billions of dollars invested by private equity companies in multi-family, rent-regulated apartments in recent years, mostly in northern Manhattan and the outer boroughs.

Critics say that as sales prices rise, buildings will become unaffordable for renters or the owners will not be able to maintain them.

SG2 has purchased some 5,000 units in more than 70 buildings in the Bronx, according to media reports.

At the time of the 2007 buy, Siegel, who is also chairman of global brokerage at CB Richard Ellis, said the mostly rent-stabilized apartments would remain affordable.

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