Housing Starts: $5B Sandy Bill? | Astoria Cove Controversy | Protesting Bushwick Gentrification

October 21st 2014

Residents at their new Breezy Point home (Photo Credit: Buck Ennis, Crain’s)

  1. Get Ready for a $5 Billion Bill, NY Large apartment towers, which represent 61% of the homes in New York’s flood zone, present the greatest departure from most of the 5.5 million properties in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program. Yet to get the lowest premium, everyone has the same guidelines.‘FEMA has one solution for residential buildings, whether you’re a single-family home or a 100-unit masonry tower: You need to raise your lowest floor and mechanical systems,’ said Jessica Yager, policy director at the NYU Furman Center. [Crain’s New York Business – 10/19/14]
  2. Protesters Link a Queens Project to Brooklyn Rents Negotiations over the fate of Astoria Cove, the first new city development to opt into Mayor Bill de Blasio’s affordable housing program, have attracted no shortage of advocates and critics hoping to influence the process. Housing advocates are pushing for the developer to increase the number of cheaper affordable units. Local officials are concerned about transportation and density. Real estate executives are worried that the city’s sharpened focus on affordable housing will cut into profits. [New York Times – 10/19/14]
  3. Housing Facility for Formerly Homeless, Low-Income Renters Opens in the Bronx The building includes 98 studio apartments, including 71 to be set aside for the indigent, according to the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Each apartment is available to those earning less than 50% of the area median income, calculated at $29,050 per person. [New York Daily News – 10/20/14]
  4. Residential Remodeling in NYC Reaches 10-Year High in September 2014 This week, the US Census will release their report on new housing units authorized by building permits. Tracking new housing starts, provides significant insight into the health of the construction sector. However, cities like New York are constrained in terms of how much new construction can take place and therefore it becomes increasingly important to track improvements to existing housing stock. [Huffington Post – 10/17/14]
  5. Brooklyn’s New Development Sales Plunge in Q3 New development and sponsored residential sales in Brooklyn saw a substantial drop in the third quarter, according to a new market report out by MNS Real Impact Real Estate. According to the report, the borough saw almost a 70 percent drop in volume and a 25 percent drop in median price since the previous quarter. The decline in sales goes together with a 60 percent decline in inventory. [The Real Deal – 10/17/14]
  6. ‘Poor Door’ Building’s Affordable Units to Be Luxury-Class, Developer Says Reps for the developer emphasized that no expense was spared in creating the affordable units, which sit in a seven-story stone base at the address, with a 41-story glass tower featuring multimillion-dollar condos rising above it. “There’s no cheaping out on materials. There’s no sense that you’re in other than a world-class building,” Lieber told those present. [DNAinfo New York – 10/16/14]
  7. Developers Help Grow Flushing And Jamaica Two prominent developers have invested a lot of capital on projects in Flushing and Jamaica. The Bluestone Organization and the F&T Group have worked on multiple projects that have helped revitalize the eastern section of Queens, including the Flushing Commons project and the Norman Towers project in Jamaica. [Queens Tribune – 10/16/14]
  8. Bushwick Residents Rally Against Gentrification We’re here to stay. That was the message of an anti-gentrification protest march in Bushwick on Wednesday. More than 100 people gathered to demand tightened rent regulations and share stories of what they described as landlord gouging. “It is clear that we are in a crisis,” said Maria De Los Santos, explaining that she is fighting to keep both her apartment and her Irving Street juice business. “I have no rights, and if I lose my business, I lose everything.” [Brooklyn Paper – 10/16/14]
  9. Breezy Point Goes Its Own Way on Sandy Recovery The community’s distinct rebuilding effort has only just begun to bear fruit. Sandy wiped out 12% of Breezy Point’s 2,837 single-family homes—218 by storm surge, 130 by fire from downed electric cables. Two years later, however, only about 20 families have been able to move into new homes, and work on 100 sites is underway. Nearly the same number are vacant, sand-filled lots. A handful of owners decided not to rebuild. [Crain’s New York Business – 10/20/14]
  10. Where Young College Graduates Are Choosing to Live When young college graduates decide where to move, they are not just looking at the usual suspects, like New York, Washington and San Francisco. Other cities are increasing their share of these valuable residents at an even higher rate and have reached a high overall percentage, led by Denver, San Diego, Nashville, Salt Lake City and Portland, Ore., according to a report published Monday by City Observatory, a new think tank. [New York Times – 10/20/14]
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