Six years after construction began, and a few years after work stalled, an upscale Gun Hill Road building appears to be back on track with a controversial landlord now in the driver’s seat.

Though the property, 301 E. Gun Hill Rd., is nominally controlled by a limited liability corporation called Gun Hill LLC, landlord Jacob Selechnik — dubbed “Jake the Snake” by tenant organizers for a long history of neglecting violation-plagued buildings — and/or his related business interests are behind a recent push to complete work on the building, which sits at the corner of Perry Avenue.

Gun Hill, LLC, shares an address and phone number with Realty Masters, Selechnik’s management company on Broadway in Kingsbridge. An employee there who answered the phone recently said she knew of the property and would have somebody in charge respond to an inquiry. No one called back.

Last month, Miriam Wurzberger, from a Brooklyn company, Metropolitan Realty Exemptions, called Fernando Tirado, the district manager of Community Board 7, to say Gun Hill, LLC, was applying to receive city tax breaks as it finished construction on 301 E. Gun Hill Rd. She wanted the Board to consider sending a letter of support.

Tirado and other Board members didn’t know the development’s ties to Selechnik, but were skeptical after looking at the application for a 421-a tax abatement, which would allow the landlord to pay property taxes on the building as if it were still an empty lot. The application said rents at the building would be at least $2,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, too high, they thought, for a neighborhood in need of more affordable housing.

“You’re not providing affordable housing, why should you get tax breaks?” Tirado said about the Board’s reaction.
Tirado said the Board asked Wurzberger to present in front of the Board and provided more detailed information, but she never responded. In turn, based on the application, the Board voted to send a letter asking the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to reject Gun Hill, LLC’s application.

HPD spokesman Eric Bederman said in an e-mail that the application was under review and that an affordability component was not required to receive a 421-a tax abatement. He added that, “A letter of recommendation from the Community Board doesn’t help or hinder. The application is judged purely on the merits on whether it meets all of the qualifications or not.”

Construction began on 301 E. Gun Hill Rd. in 2005, but the original developers ran out of money and Gun Hill, LLC, recently bought out the mortgage.

“Our biggest fear is that they won’t be able to rent out the apartments because they’re too expensive and the landlords will turn the building into transitional housing,” Tirado said.