A New York City apartment building owner steeped in the wacky world of rent stabilization helpfully suggested on X that Attorney General Letitia James ask the state to determine if her Fort Greene rental building should be rent-stabilized.
The Office of Rent Administration at the Division of Homes and Community Renewal would be happy to do it, he chirped.
“I don’t support rent regulation in general but there are all sorts of traps that make the NYC rent regulation regimes particularly bad,” the landlord wrote. “I would happily experience schadenfreude if such a notable supporter of the regimes got caught in one of the traps.”
A certificate of occupancy issued in January 2001, the month before James bought the building at 296 Lafayette Avenue, shows five units: one on each of the first three floors, plus two units on the fourth. There were five utility meters.
A previous C of O, however, showed seven units, so unless the property were deregulated through a substantial rehabilitation, it could be retroactively subject to rent stabilization.
But who among James’ tenants would bring a case? According to the law firm that James hired last week, her mother initially lived on the first floor, James herself on the second, a close family friend on the third and her brother on the fourth. Since her mother died, James has occupied the first and second floor units, and her friend and brother remain in their units.
Her brother and friend are not likely to sue her.
But two complaints for peeling walls were filed with the city on April 16, perhaps by tenants not named by the law firm. The units cited were 1 (entire apartment) and 2B (living room). Would James’ brother, her friend, or the attorney general herself have filed a complaint?
The complaints were closed because the inspector couldn’t get in, which suggests an outsider filed them to make trouble. It’s also possible that her brother did not occupy both top-floor units, and at some point there was another tenant up there. At one point, Unit 3B was listed for rent on StreetEasy:
Even if the building were deemed rent-stabilized, James would probably not have to pay much for past rent overcharges because most or all of her tenants were friends and family. But the value of the building would drop considerably.
What we’re thinking about: How much attention should anyone pay to a 10-year, $24.7 billion housing plan from a mayor with eight months left in his political career? Send your thoughts to eengquist@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: The Building Construction and Trades Council’s Gary LaBarbera says “there is no intention of revisiting 485x, as BCTC remains in full support of this measure. Gov. [Kathy] Hochul and the legislature made the right decision on this last year, and that remains the case today. The math here works, and those trying to say otherwise simply don’t want to pay the tradesmen and tradeswomen on these potential projects adequately.”
If the math works, we should start to see construction loans for 485x projects of 100 units or more. If we continue to see 99-unit projects, it means sites are not being developed to their full potential.
Elsewhere…
I proposed in a February column that the Department of Housing Preservation and Development allow vacated affordable units to be listed for rent rather than thrown back into the housing lottery. HPD has now agreed to do exactly that, at least for a one-year trial.
Rest assured, these below-market apartments will be re-rented almost immediately on Craigslist and StreetEasy, having been freed from an obscure and tedious process that sometimes took more than a year to fill a unit. This will help nonprofit landlords, who are just as desperate for rent revenue as rent-stabilized housing providers.
The change was motivated more by a Housing Conference of New York report than by my column or a Gothamist story. Still, it’s proof that even in city government, common sense sometimes prevails — especially with some sunlight from the media.
No doubt someone at HPD is reading this and thinking, “This change was in the works way before any of those reports!” But that would only be proof that it took too long.
Regardless, if ever you are wondering why things happen the way they do, a good place to start is to assume there are no coincidences in politics.
Closing time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Wednesday was $10.9 million for a 3,220-square-foot condominium unit at 45 East 80th Street on the Upper East Side. Melissa Post from Serhant had the listing.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was $19.8 million for a portfolio of four rental buildings at 323-329 East 92nd Street in Yorkville.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $28.75 million for a 6,205-square-foot, sponsor-sale condominium unit at 211 West 84th Street on the Upper West Side. Alexa Lambert at Compass has the listing.
— Matthew Elo
