39 East 1st Street, Manhattan, NY 10003

39 East 1st Street is a five-story, 13-unit old law tenement building located in Manhattan's East Village, built in 1900 and currently owned by Terrence Lowenberg. The building has experienced recurring heating and hot water issues over the past several years, with documented complaints from both 2020 and 2022 indicating problems affecting the entire building. Several of these incidents required HPD intervention, though in some cases tenants reported that services were restored before inspections could confirm the conditions.

The building faced notable violations in 2020, including one related to a locked boiler room access door and another concerning a first-floor apartment's hot water supply. A boiler inspection in June 2020 revealed hazardous conditions with multiple issues requiring immediate attention, for which a $1,250 penalty was imposed. The property has maintained consistent records of rodent inspections between 2020 and 2025, with all resulting in passing grades, suggesting effective pest management. Bedbug reports from 2021 through 2025 consistently show zero infested units, indicating successful eradication efforts.

More recent building maintenance shows improvements, with no significant violations reported since the boiler issues of 2020-2021. The most recent building inspections, including rodent inspections in 2025, have passed without incident. While the heating system has been a recurring concern in past years, the absence of complaints since 2022 may indicate stabilization of building systems, though this should be interpreted cautiously given historical patterns. The building's entrance and vestibule door self-closing mechanism violations from 2022, while not directly impacting resident comfort, suggest areas where building security was temporarily compromised before resolution.