Luxury Rentals Coming To Former Drug Kingpin's Inwood Lot

INWOOD, NY — A parking lot in Inwood that used to be owned by a murderous drug kingpin known as "El Monstro" is about to go through a major redevelopment ending with new luxury rentals.

Timber Equities, a New York City real estate firm, recently filed a new building permit with the city for the 100-car parking lot at 5055 Broadway, which it plans to turn into an eleven-story rental building with 60 apartments.

25 percent of those apartments will have to be offered at a below-market rate due to rules within the Inwood Rezoning project.

The Real Deal was the first publication to report on the planned redevelopment at 5055 Broadway in Inwood.

The Inwood parking lot has quite the history.

In 2015, the lot was seized by federal authorities along with more than $500,000 in cash, a gold jewelry collection, three guns, and a Louis Vuitton bag, the Real Deal reported.

At the time, the Inwood land was owned by Manuel Geovanny Rodriguez-Perez, a drug kingpin also known as "Shorty" and "El Monstro." He was given a life sentence in 2017 for nine murders, 10 attempted murders, racketeering, and selling copious amounts of marijuana.

Rodriguez-Perez had been in federal custody since 2010, when he was arrested in a drug bust that took down more than 50 members of a massive marijuana trafficking ring that brought weed from Florida and California to New York City, according to the Justice Department.

Rodriguez-Perez was a member and leader of a criminal organization known as either the "Rodriguez Organization" or the "Enterprise," according to court documents. His indictment papers read that the group's members engaged in "narcotics trafficking, murder, attempted murder, money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and bank fraud."

Timbers Equities bought the Inwood parking lot in October 2020 for $3.4 million.

Jeff Torkin of Timber Equities told the Real Deal that he wasn't aware of the site's criminal history.

"We're just focused on bringing luxury rentals to the city with the affordable component and I think that's what New York City is about," Torkin told the Real Deal. "Taking underutilized land and getting its best and highest use."

Torkin added to the real estate site that the building will have a rooftop terrace, gym, recreation area, bike parking, and retail space.

The parking lot at 5055 Broadway is the latest Inwood rezoning project to get underway in the months since the Upper Manhattan rezoning project was given the final green light.