Office Construction Heats Up | Sustainability in Low-Income NY | London’s Luxury Housing

Image Credit: Shawn Escoffery / CityLab

1. Nearly 200 Buildings in New York City Flouted Tax Rules, Officials Say “Developers of nearly 200 small buildings in New York City have flouted the terms of tax breaks they received by failing to place their apartments on the rent-stabilization rolls, state and city officials said In letters that went out Tuesday, officials from three agencies told the owners to register their units as rent-stabilized or risk a range of penalties, including being required to return the value of their tax incentives. The action affects 2,472 apartments in 194 buildings scattered across the city, but mostly in Brooklyn.” [New York Times – 08/25/15]
2. New York City Office Construction Heats Up “Construction of new office space in New York City is on track to hit a 25-year high this year and almost double that built in 2014, reflecting increasing employment and low interest rates, according to a new report by the New York Building Congress. Big development sites at Hudson Yards on the West Side and the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan are helping to boost the pace of office construction, which is expected to reach 4.3 million square feet in 2015, the report said. That is a 79% increase from the 2.4 million square feet built in 2014 and the highest level since 1990.” [Wall Street Journal – 08/26/15]
3. New York City Apartment Towers on Record-Setting Pace “Four years after the Sherry-Netherland impressed New Yorkers in 1927 with a spire reaching 560 feet above the ground, the Waldorf Astoria topped it. For more than a half-century, the 632-foot luxury hotel-apartment combination on Park Avenue endured as the city’s tallest residential structure. These days, the once-towering Waldorf could be considered quaint, not to mention squat. At least five buildings this decade will set a new standard for height among New York City residential structures, according to research released this week by the Skyscraper Museum.” [Crain’s New York Business – 08/26/15]
4. Powerful Trade Groups to Begin Wage Talks for Workers at Residential Projects Receiving a Lucrative Tax Break “Two powerful trade organizations that control the fate of a controversial property-tax exemption known as 421-a will begin determining the program’s future as soon as late September. In June, the state legislature passed preliminary reforms to 421-a, a program designed to spur construction of predominately rental housing by exempting developers from property taxes for up to 35 years. But in an unusual arrangement, a revised 421-a will only become law if the Real Estate Board of New York, the trade group representing the real estate industry, and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, an umbrella group that represents union shops, can agree on wage requirements for workers constructing 421-a buildings larger than 15 units.” [Crain’s New York Bysiness – 08/25/15]
5. The Most Expensive Cities in the U.S. for Single People and Families “The Economic Policy Institute has updated its family budget calculator, which estimates what it would cost for someone to live what they describe as a “modest but comfortable” life in 618 metro and rural areas across the United States. The tool tallies living costs, child care expenses, health care and rough estimates for groceries, transportation and other bills. For the first time this year the institute also looked at living costs for a single person without children — added thanks to popular demand — and for bigger families with up to four children. The most expensive cities for singles and for families were fairly similar, though the exact order varied for different family sizes depending on how taxes, child care and health care costs varied from state to state.” [Washington Post – 08/26/15]
6. London’s Luxury Housing Mirrors NYC’s Upscale Push “Just like New York, London has become dotted with a new breed of apartment blocks, buildings full of luxury flats designed for wealthy foreigners. Low income Londoners are feeling squeezed. Take the tenants of the Sutton Estate. Located in one of London’s wealthiest neighborhoods, the estate was built a hundred years ago to house the city’s working poor. But some of today’s impoverished residents now face eviction. […] The plan is to demolish most of the estate and to rebuild it. Some of the low income homes would be turned into luxury apartments and sold off to rich foreign investors. Some 60 displaced households would be moved elsewhere. Ian Henderson, who chairs the “Save the Sutton Estate” campaign, accuses the British government and the local authority of putting profit before people.” [Marketplace – 08/26/15]
7. Sustainability on the Rise in Low Income New York “With owners, developers, architects, engineers and designers embracing sustainable best practices and becoming more adept and creative in sustainability’s evolution from novelty to normalcy, sustainable/green design is gaining considerable momentum throughout New York City. The increase in green architecture is not just a win on two sides, but on three. In addition to environmental and economic improvements such as greatly reduced energy usage, lower cost for energy, the longer life and lower maintenance of LED lighting, etc., green housing can also influence social improvements. Via Verde/The Green Way in the Bronx is a trendsetting example. A co-development of Phipps Houses and Jonathan Rose Companies in partnership with Dattner Architect and Grimshaw, the mixed-use project is the winning response to the New Housing New York Legacy Competition and provides 151 low-income rental apartments and 71 middle-income co-ops.” [Real Estate Weekly – 08/26/15]
8. Why Louisiana Fought Low-Income Housing in New Orleans After Katrina “In May 2009, about four years after Katrina destroyed most of New Orleans, a locally based research nonprofit called the Bureau of Governmental Research issued a key finding: ‘Subsidized housing will assist more of the poorest households in New Orleans than before the disaster, and a far greater number of low- and moderate-income households with incomes between 40% and 80% of median.’ This was actually a warning. Taken from its report ‘The House That Uncle Sam Built,’ BGR was concerned that the city was taking on too much subsidized housing and needed to reconsider its overall strategy. Noting the downside of federal housing-assistance programs—‘a declining tax base,’ it listed, as one example—the research center came to the conclusion that, ‘In planning for the future of the city, policymakers should strive for a housing market that accommodates different income levels without placing a disproportionate burden on the city.”” [CityLab – 08/27/15]
9. New York Will Fund $100M Flood Protection Project to Shield Lower Manhattan from Major Storms “The city will spend $100 million to build a new flood protection system to shield lower Manhattan from major storms, Mayor de Blasio will announce Thursday. The project — stretching from the top of Battery Park City around the tip of Manhattan and up to the Lower East Side — will use measures like levees, flood walls, and more park land to soak up storm water and protect the area from the “absolute devastation” it experienced during Sandy, said Dan Zarrilli, director of the Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency. ‘With a changing climate, the risks are growing,’ Zarrilli said. The city is spending on the system as it enters a national disaster preparedness competition run by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, hoping to win up to $500 million more to finance a more ambitious project.” [NY Daily News – 08/27/15]
10. Harlem Is Becoming As Expensive As the Rest of Manhattan “StreetEasy’s Market Report for July is out now, and while some of the data within isn’t too surprising—resale prices for Manhattan and Brooklyn hit record highs, as did rents—there are some interesting (and possibly depressing) tidbits. Namely: Resale prices in Upper Manhattan (covering north-of-110th-Street neighborhoods like Harlem, Inwood, and Hamilton Heights) are on the rise, with an 11.9 percent increase from this time last year. Even though the median resale price there is lower than the rest of the borough, at $565,690, it’s a significant jump from the same period last year. In a press release, Alan Lightfeldt, StreetEasy’s data scientist, said ‘With homebuyers being priced out of not only Manhattan but many Brooklyn neighborhoods as well, these northern neighborhoods are attractive now more than ever… Upper Manhattan is a new battleground for bidding wars.’” [Curbed NY – 08/27/15]