It’s New York City versus Morris Rubin in the battle to fix up the Majestic.
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development is suing the owner of 3660 Waldo Ave., a building that has failed to live up to its grandiose name and is notorious for its hundreds of unaddressed violations.

In its latest legal salvo in Bronx Housing Court, called a comprehensive case, the city is demanding that Mr. Rubin fix every infraction plaguing the 87-unit building at the intersection of Waldo Avenue and West 238th Street.

In August, HPD recommended the Majestic for the Proactive Preservation Initiative. The new program was created last January to identify and repair 500 buildings in danger of becoming blighting influences on their New York City neighborhoods.

HPD identifies buildings for proactive preservation through a combination of 3-1-1 complaints, inquiries from elected officials and housing maintenance code violations. There are 147 buildings, including the Majestic, currently being monitored by the agency’s Proactive Enforcement Bureau.

Under the program, HPD conducts roof-to-cellar inspections, sets strict deadlines for improvements and initiates litigation against noncompliant landlords.

After the Majestic found its way onto the list, it quickly became clear that Mr. Rubin was not cooperative.

“Inspectors on [Aug. 11] issued a bunch of violations, including obstructed egress and fire pathway. And the owner refused to provide a fire watch and refused us access to take care of the problem,” Eric Bederman, an HPD spokesman, said in August. “This has sort of been our interaction with the owner. He hasn’t wanted to work with us when we issued violations.”

As of Tuesday, records from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development showed 468 open violations at the Majestic, all of them posted since Aug. 20. Of them, 66 are Class C violations and are considered immediately hazardous.