Housing Starts: Mitchell-Lama Windfall? I City Taking on Public Benefits I The Unfinished Suburbs

Residential towers at 21 West End Ave Under Construction (Photo Credit: Ángel Franco/The New York Times)

1. Divided by a Windfall The development could also be on the hook for a $27.77 million transfer tax if the New York State Court of Appeals rules in favor of the city in an ongoing case involving a former Mitchell-Lama development in Coney Island that privatized in 2007. If privatization goes through, and “you want to sell, then there is this incredible opportunity to cash out and get a windfall,” said Max Weselcouch, the director of the Moelis Institute for Affordable Housing Policy at the Furman Center. “If you don’t want to sell, then you are locked into paying higher maintenance and taxes. Your living expenses rise.” [New York Times – 11/14/14]
2. Shuttered Brooklyn Hospital Eyed for Affordable Housing Community leaders and local officials are urging the city to make the long-abandoned Greenpoint Hospital complex available for redevelopment as affordable housing. The former nursing residence on Kingsland Ave. and Skillman St. has been in limbo for decades. “There is no reason to allow this site to continue to deteriorate and sit unused,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney. “It’s city-owned land, and it’s not being used for any positive purpose.” [New York Daily News – 11/16/14]
3. Developers Differ on NYC Luxury-Apartment Bubble Real estate industry players, including luxury developer Aby Rosen of RFR Realty, pushed back against recent public comments from others in the industry hinting at a bubble in New York City’s high-end residential market. ‘I don’t believe in the bubble at all. I find it foolish, that word,’ said Mr. Rosen, speaking at a multifamily-property summit hosted by Massey Knakal Realty Services. [Crain’s New York Business – 11/13/14]
4. City to Shoulder More Public Benefit Costs The city will shoulder a higher share of costs associated with creating public benefits such as schools and parks, in order to encourage more developers to address the affordable housing crisis, chairman of the City Planning Commission Carl Weisbrod said on a panel today. Under the Bill de Blasio administration, Weisbrod expects to see a reversal of several decades of public policy. Whereas in the past the city required developers to pay for parks, schools and public spaces in exchange for incentives such as upzoning, the city will now take on more of that burden. [The Real Deal – 11/13/14]
5. Investors Shopped Stake in Astoria Cove Project Part of the team developing Astoria Cove, the 1,700-unit residential project on the Queens waterfront recently approved by a City Council committee, has been shopping around a stake in the project, Crain’s has learned. A member of the development team, led by Queens-based Alma Realty, approached at least one major developer in recent months and offered to sell a piece, according to sources in the development world. [Crain’s New York Business – 11/14/14]
6. Sewing Up a Loose End on West End A drawn-out and often divisive plan to create a new neighborhood atop railroad tracks on the Far West Side — and, surprisingly, one having nothing to do with Hudson Yards — is embarking on its final phase. Two towers are now rising at Riverside Center, an eight-acre development in the low West 60s near the Hudson River that is the last piece of the Riverside South mega-project, which since its conception five decades ago has put a shiny stamp on land once crossed by Penn Central trains. [New York Times – 11/14/14]
7. Luxe Developers Packing More into Less Forget studio apartments. A new batch of efficiency units can be found in luxury buildings, as developers seek ways to add value for high-end buyers while keeping a lid on their owns costs. Unlike the sprawling trophy apartments that have hit the market in the past few years, tighter-cut units at buildings like 15 Leonard Street, the Charles at 1355 First Avenue, the Rudin family’s Greenwich Lane and others offer more value per square foot for buyers, brokers said. [The Real Deal – 11/14/14]
8. Bronx Building Tagged by Banksy to be Converted into Apartments Tag it, and they will come. That’s what one landlord whose derelict Bronx building was used as a canvas by celebrity street artist Banksy is hoping. The upper three floors of the four-story building on the corner of Third Ave. and 153rd St. are being renovated by owner David Dimaghi, and will be converted to what may be the first market-rate apartments in years in the hardscrabble Melrose neighborhood. [New York Daily News – 11/13/14]
9. The Unfinished Suburbs of America In 2006, they started building, platting the land and paving roads. They erected street lights and electrical cables and installed street signs with rock star names like Jagger Lane and Hendrix Drive. Then the recession hit, and building stopped. The streets and the sidewalks were still there, as were the lots, with red and black electrical wires sticking out of the ground. But only a few houses had been completed. [Atlantic CityLab – 11/14/14]
10. Hudson River Park Gets $100 Million Launch It is one of the largest privately funded parks in the country, and it will soon be off Manhattan’s western shore. On Monday, billionaire businessman Barry Diller; his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg; and the Hudson River Park Trust are expected to announce the creation of a $130 million, 2.7-acre pier, public park and performance space near New York’s Meatpacking District. [Wall Street Journal – 11/17/14]