Steven Kessner

'All I do is fix, and they damage'

A A A Comments (2) By Taina Borrero Tuesday, Jun 27 2006

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photo: Giulietta Verdon-Roe

Mold contaminates apartment 4F at one of Kessner's East 117th Street buildings.

Details

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"Kessner and his company have treated us like we're not worth anything," says Paula Serrano, one of Kessner's tenants at 328 East 106th Street who finally won some court-ordered repairs. "It gave us more strength to fight against him. We will not give up."

Kessner says he won't give up either. "I'm not selling," he says. "No one is forcing me out of the neighborhood I helped build. This particular problem with this group has been my only headache. Listen, I like this neighborhood. I have four sons in the business and we're going to grow. I'm going to finish my job. I want this neighborhood to be tree-lined. The media has an agenda, and it has been biased against us. How bad of a landlord can I be? I never made the '10 Worst' list at your paper."

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