688 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11238

The three-story, three-unit old law tenement building at 688 Dean Street in Prospect Heights, owned by Cleonne Simone and constructed in 1915, has a noteworthy history of maintenance and compliance issues, particularly in recent years. The property has consistently failed to submit annual bedbug reports as required by Housing Maintenance Code, with violations recorded every year from 2021 through 2024 that remain open as of April 2024. More significantly, the building has been undergoing substantial work that began around 2020, with multiple active complaints and violations related to construction safety and compliance with Local Law 188/17 in 2024.

Between October 2023 and January 2024, there were several critical safety violations during construction work, including inadequate scaffolding, improper overhead protection, and safety concerns regarding temporary platforms, resulting in multiple fines totaling $18,750. While the building has passed recent rodent inspections in 2023, 2024, and 2025, it previously failed in April 2018. The Department of Buildings has issued several permits for work at the property, with the most recent being issued in September 2020 for unspecified construction activities.

The building's recent history raises particular safety concerns, with multiple construction safety violations recorded in late 2023 and early 2024, including issues with scaffolding, overhead protection, and worker safety. The property has also faced challenges with regulatory compliance, as evidenced by the pattern of open violations related to bedbug reporting requirements and various construction-related complaints. While the building has shown some improvements in rodent control, passing inspections consistently since 2023, the ongoing open violations and active complaints regarding bedbug reporting and construction compliance suggest that some maintenance and regulatory requirements are still not being fully met.