Emerald Equity Group controls 30 buildings in East Harlem. Each one is hidden behind its own LLC — "112 East 103 LLC," "118 East 103 LLC," and so on, down the block and across the neighborhood. Thirty buildings, thirty separate LLCs, one firm managing all of them, all traceable to the same owner: Isaac Kassirer.
27 of 30 buildings rate concerning. Combined, those 30 buildings carry 1,348 open violations right now — hazards the landlord knows about and hasn't fixed. Over the lifetime of the portfolio, more than 6,300 violations have been filed.
We have every one of them mapped.
[GRAPHIC 1] Portfolio stat card — 30 buildings / 1,348 open violations / 27 rated concerning
How we know this
Every landlord who owns residential property in New York City must register with HPD. That registration includes contact names, managing agents, and business addresses. It's public record.
Emerald's buildings don't advertise their common ownership. Each LLC has a different name. But they share the same HPD registration contact: Mark Furman at Colliers International, 1114 6th Avenue, Manhattan. That single thread connects all 30 buildings — and exposes the full scope of a portfolio that's been making headlines for years.
This is exactly what Brix was built to do.
Every Emerald building, every LLC, mapped
Brix traced all 30 buildings back to the same owner through HPD registration data. You can see the full network right now — every address, every LLC, every violation count across the portfolio.
And if you want to trace the ownership of your own building — find out who's really behind the LLC on your lease — that's free too.
One block. Five buildings. 1,343 violations.
Five of the Emerald buildings sit on the same block — East 103rd Street between Park and Lexington. Here's what HPD records show today:
| Address | Total violations | Open now | Class C (immediately hazardous) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 112 East 103rd St | 224 | 33 | 54 |
| 118 East 103rd St | 432 | 31 | 129 |
| 122 East 103rd St | 176 | 18 | 53 |
| 124 East 103rd St | 151 | 7 | 35 |
| 126 East 103rd St | 360 | 40 | 91 |
| Block total | 1,343 | 129 | 362 |
Class C violations are immediately hazardous. Under NYC law they must be corrected within 24 hours. 118 East 103rd Street has 129 of them.
[GRAPHIC 2] Stacked bar chart — violations by class per building
[GRAPHIC 3] Open violations horizontal bar chart
362 Class C violations across five buildings on a single block. 129 still open today. This is not deferred maintenance. It's a pattern, and it was visible in public records before anyone filed a lawsuit or called a press conference.
How Emerald got here
Kassirer bought a 47-building Harlem portfolio for $357.5 million in 2016, financed with a $300 million loan, with a plan to renovate rent-stabilized apartments and convert them to market rate. It was a common playbook in the mid-2010s — load up on regulated buildings, push out long-term tenants, deregulate units, profit.
The 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act killed that strategy. The model collapsed. Emerald admitted in bankruptcy court to failing to separate tenant security deposits from operating funds — over $470,000 in tenant money commingled with company accounts.
"Our landlord doesn't want to repair the issues in my apartment because he wants to kick us out and raise the rent." — Alexandra Mason, tenant leader with Community Voices Heard, standing on the stoop of 118 East 103rd Street. The building behind her had 432 violations on record. 129 of them Class C.
Tenants in these five buildings eventually won a $500,000 settlement — six months of rent credit and repayment of stolen security deposits — after a 16-month rent strike.
They won. 1,348 violations are still open across the portfolio. 27 of 30 buildings rate concerning.
Now all 38 buildings in the broader Emerald East Harlem portfolio — carrying over 2,300 violations combined — are headed to foreclosure auction. Mayor Mamdani is trying to steer the sale toward community ownership, away from another speculative buyer. The East Harlem/El Barrio Community Land Trust wants to buy them. The tenants who have lived there for decades want to stay.
What this means if you're renting in NYC
The Emerald story is extreme. But the underlying structure, a landlord operating through dozens of LLCs, with a violation record that tells a very different story than the listing photos, is not unusual. It plays out across all five boroughs, at every price point, every day.
The LLC structure is designed to obscure: thirty buildings, thirty company names, no obvious connection unless you know to look at HPD registration contacts. Most renters don't know to look, and most don't know the tool exists.
Brix traces the ownership chain automatically. Search any NYC address and we'll show you the violations, the complaint history, and who really owns the building — including what other properties they control and what those look like.
If you're apartment hunting in East Harlem — or anywhere in New York City — search the address before you sign. The data that took tenant organizers years to litigate is one search away.
All violation data sourced from NYC HPD public records via Brix. Portfolio ownership mapped via HPD registration contacts.
