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Council backs off sabotage of 421a

UPDATED May 17, 2022, 7:12 p.m.: As the mayor makes a last-minute push to save an affordable housing tax break, City Council members planned to rally for its demise. With seven working days left in the state’s legislative session, Mayor Eric Adams is traveling to Albany to make his case for a replacement for 421a. Meanwhile, the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings planned a hearing Tuesday on a resolution calling on the state

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Council member calls 40% affordable project “slap in the face”

One developer’s concession is another City Council member’s “bread crumbs.” Developers trying to save One45, a proposed 915-unit project in Harlem, added 150 income-restricted units to their plan Tuesday, bringing the portion of affordable units to 40 percent. That is more than nearly every project in the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, which mandates up to 30 percent affordability. But local Council member Kristin Richardson Jordan was not impressed. In fact, she was outraged. Jordan

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Brooklyn developments avert disaster with rezoning deal

In January, City Council member Crystal Hudson seemed to torpedo two major residential developments in her district, asking developers EMP Capital and Y&T Development to withdraw their applications so she could be involved from the start. That would have meant lost time, increased costs and, perhaps most important, no chance of starting construction before the 421a tax break expired. But now there’s a deal. Hudson, it turns out, was willing to negotiate. She has announced

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Council bill demands landlords turn up thermostats

The City Council is turning up the heat on landlords — literally. Council member Crystal Hudson introduced a bill Thursday to make them raise the minimum temperature in apartment buildings, reasoning that it would reduce the use of dangerous space heaters. City law requires that from October through May, landlords heat multifamily buildings to at least 68 degrees during the day and 62 at night. The bill would bump those temperatures to 70 and 66

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“Good cause” crowd attacks homeownership plan

It’s New York real estate’s Catch-22: Ignore poor neighborhoods and be blamed for disinvestment, or invest in them and be labeled a predator. In the latest illustration, Glacier Equities is pursuing co-op conversions where tenants can buy their apartments at a discount. That is a path to eviction avoidance, not to mention a nest egg. But activists pushing “good cause eviction” have turned it into a cautionary tale. Last month, they staged a rally slamming

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Lines being drawn for $2B Queens development

All eyes in Astoria are on a new City Council member as a megaproject draws opposition from the local community board. Resistance has popped up — as it always does for sizable projects in Queens — against the $2 billion Innovation QNS development, the New York Post reported. Local community members have cited gentrification and community character as reasons to deny the project the political approval it needs. Unveiled in 2020 by Kaufman Astoria Studios,

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City demanding more affordability in apartment projects

Through the process of elimination, the city is demanding deeper affordability from its signature housing policy. The City Council last week approved three site rezonings in Brooklyn under the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, but dropped a rent option that had become a favorite of developers. Council members have done so with increasing frequency in the past year. The affordability tier being targeted is called “option 2,” under which at least 30 percent of a

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Condo defects? Council bill would make developers pay

The unit was modern and pristine, but three years later the ceiling leaks, the walls are cracked and the floors are warped. Such complaints about construction defects are relatively common among New York City condo owners, even at the city’s most exclusive addresses.  But some of those unlucky homeowners may soon have new recourse: A City Council bill would put developers on the hook for repairs needed within 10 years of a “homeownership” project being

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A Harlem real estate drama worthy of Hollywood

You can lead a socialist to the fountain of knowledge, but you can’t make her drink. That comes to mind upon reading City Council member Kristin Richardson Jordan’s rationale for opposing a Harlem apartment project with about 650 market-rate and 250 income-restricted apartments. “The market-rate housing is what’s driving up the property values and driving up the cost of living and causing a lot of struggles with congestion in the area and has a big

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A Harlem real estate drama worthy of Hollywood

You can lead a socialist to the fountain of knowledge, but you can’t make her drink. That comes to mind upon reading City Council member Kristin Richardson Jordan’s rationale for opposing a Harlem apartment project with about 650 market-rate and 250 income-restricted apartments. “The market-rate housing is what’s driving up the property values and driving up the cost of living and causing a lot of struggles with congestion in the area and has a big

The post A Harlem real estate drama worthy of Hollywood appeared first on The Real Deal New York.