Olufemi Falade (Brooklyn landlord)

Introduction

Olufemi Falade is the Brooklyn landlord who owned 1321 Flatbush Avenue in Flatbush — the three-story apartment building that collapsed onto an adjacent excavation site on November 11, 2026, killing eight people, including two children. The New York Post, scouring city records after the collapse, reported that Falade is a “notorious slumlord” who has landed on the NYC public advocate’s annual “Worst Landlords Watchlist” six times and owes more than $450,000 in fines, unpaid taxes and water bills. He has not been charged with any crime; the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office is examining whether criminal charges should be brought against those responsible for the collapse.

Background Information

Falade, who purchased the 96-year-old building in 1999 under his entity “Femi Realty Corp,” transferred its ownership in November 2024 to another company he controls, “Isolag Realty Corp” — signing the deed as both seller and buyer with no money exchanged, a shell-to-shell move city records show is common among landlords seeking to evade fines and taxes, though legal experts say it does not absolve the debt. City records show the building carried 98 open housing-code violations before it fell — bedbug infestations, defective doors, exposed wiring, and leaky-roof violations dating as far back as 1976 and still being issued into 2026. In 2006, a judge found him in civil contempt for failing to fix more than 1,800 violations — vermin infestations, exposed wires, leaking pipes — at 12 Brooklyn buildings he then owned, and sentenced him to 12 days in jail plus a $50,000 fine. The property has cycled through the city’s tax-lien sale process at least five times since 2017 over its unpaid municipal debts, according to court and city property records reviewed by Gothamist.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Not charged. Owner of the building that fell — no finding of fault. Falade is uncharged; the city has not determined who is at fault for the collapse, and no finding connects his building’s code violations to the structural failure, which reporting attributes to the adjacent excavation next door. What follows is his documented record and the collapse context, not an adjudicated responsibility.

The building came down around 4 p.m. on November 11 — Veterans Day, with public-school students home off — crumbling into the dirt pit of the excavation next door at 2625 Bedford Avenue, where construction was underway for a new apartment building; by the next morning, at least eight people were confirmed dead. Days later, the Post’s records review reported that Falade’s debts at the property include $170,000 in Department of Buildings fines issued in 2019 for improperly displayed signs, $114,945 in unpaid water bills accumulated over several years, and $113,526 in property taxes dating to 2021 — plus a $49,269 federal income-tax lien from 2010 and $4,316 more owed to New York State. The Post’s reporting on the collapse’s likely cause points the other direction — at the neighboring site, whose approved excavation plans “crucially did not include any hard reinforcements” alongside the now-collapsed building — but the city says it is still trying to determine who is at fault, and the Department of Buildings is investigating “everything and everyone involved,” including the construction contractors next door and the landlord of the building that fell.

News 12 reported that photographs show cracks along the north wall of 1321 Flatbush Avenue taken eight months before the collapse, and that a pre-construction survey filed with the buildings department rated that wall in poor condition. Massimo D’Angelo, a real-estate attorney with Blank Rome, told the Post that HPD and the Department of Buildings need to share enforcement files better — “particularly for structural oversight violations” — adding of Falade’s 2006 jail stint: “This guy was rotting in jail for 12 days and it didn’t cure the problem. The city’s remedies are too slow.” Falade did not return messages from the Post or a phone message from Gothamist.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at the scene the day after the collapse: “If there is anyone or any entity that bears responsibility for what happened, we will hold them fully accountable.” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, whose office runs the Worst Landlords Watchlist Falade has appeared on six times, said his office is “looking into disturbing things we heard about the property and the property owner who may have been negligent” — and that criminal accountability should follow if investigators uncover multiple instances of negligence on both the building and construction sides: “I believe arrest at some point, if that is the case.” New York Attorney General Letitia James said she has “full confidence in Eric Gonzalez and his office to engage in a full and thorough investigation” and that her office is prepared to assist with a prosecution if necessary.

Current Status

Falade has not been charged and no citation of fault has issued; the Brooklyn DA’s office is examining whether criminal charges should be brought against those responsible for the collapse, which killed eight people, including two children. The city is still trying to determine who is at fault, and the Department of Buildings says the construction work and the building’s owner both remain central to its ongoing investigation. Falade, who did not respond to press inquiries, owns the wrecked property through Isolag Realty Corp; his combined municipal and tax debts — fines, water bills, property taxes and the federal lien — top $450,000, and no public statement from him is recorded.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The collapse converted two decades of enforcement paper into a live criminal investigation with Falade at its center: a 2006 contempt jail term that “didn’t cure the problem,” six Worst Landlords appearances, 98 open violations on the building that fell, and a half-million dollars in unsatisfied debts now attached to a property that no longer exists. The buildings department has dispatched inspectors to roughly 100 other sites tied to the five entities involved in the neighboring excavation, and both the site’s developers and the building’s owner face a DA’s review that could end in charges no prior violation ever produced.

Sources

“Exclusive | Owner of collapsed Brooklyn building is a notorious slumlord, tax deadbeat who owes $450K debt — NY Post” source
“Developer at Brooklyn collapse site had record of flouting orders from city agency — Gothamist” source
“Flatbush, Brooklyn building that collapsed had 98 open violations, city records show — CBS New York” source
“The warnings were there. Now Brooklyn wants answers after deadly building collapse — News 12 Brooklyn” source
“@nypost on X: Owner of Brooklyn building that collapsed is a notorious slumlord, tax deatbeat who owes $450K debt” source