187 Hester Street, Manhattan, NY 10013

187 Hester Street is a 5-story, 20-unit residential building located in Little Italy, owned by Matthew Keller and constructed in 1900. The property has experienced recurring heat and hot water issues throughout 2025, with multiple emergency complaints filed between January and April 2025, resulting in violations from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) inspections.

The building has also faced several infrastructure and maintenance challenges, including open violations from a January 2024 inspection related to a defective self-closing door in apartment 7F, missing wire mesh under the skylight, and unauthorized alterations involving a closet under the staircase and a cinder block wall in the yard. Recent inspection history shows consistent compliance with rodent control regulations, passing inspections throughout 2022-2024, and the building has maintained an active bedbug-free status for the past two reporting periods (2023-2024). The property has recent Department of Buildings (DOB) complaints related to gas hook-up issues and vent/exhaust concerns in 2025, though some inspections were unable to gain access or resulted in no violations being found.

There are active DOB violations regarding the failure to file 2018 and 2019 external low-pressure inspections dating back to June 2023. While there was one documented instance of bedbug infestation in late 2022, subsequent reports have shown no further occurrences. The building's maintenance history indicates attention to various regulatory requirements, as evidenced by the correction of several violations related to safety signage and notifications for smoke detector and carbon monoxide requirements in April 2024, though some violations remain open as of the latest records.