On Thursday afternoon, a group of tenants gathered at the corner of West 55th Street and Sixth Avenue.
“Don’t let our homes be sold to another slumlord!” they said.
Just a few blocks away, a very different gathering was taking place: an auction for those same homes.
At the law offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, bids were circulating for more than 5,000 mostly rent-stabilized apartments. They are the property of Joel Wiener’s Pinnacle Group, which had put them into bankruptcy.
We’ve heard the auction started Thursday morning and went into the night. But the winner was confirmed at 4 p.m. on Friday: Summit Properties, run by chairman Zohar Levy, is slated to be the new owner of the units.
It’s a deal that’s been much scrutinized. The city has raised concerns about the profitability of the minimum bid and sought to delay the auction. Tenants obviously consider Summit to be a slumlord. On Wednesday, reporting from Bisnow revealed connections between Summit and Wiener’s brother Jonathan Wiener.
But beyond the back and forth about the sale price and Summit’s stewardship, the pushback is, in my estimation, really about tenants and the Mamdani administration sensing an opportunity to take these units outside the purview of a traditional private landlord and into something… else.
What that something else is, well, they haven’t quite worked that out. The words “cooperative,” “preservation” and “community land trust” have been bandied around. I’ve written before about the very real and bold dreams of alternative ownership from advocates and city officials. But so far there’s no clear vision of what tenants and Mamdani want for these units.
What is clear is that they have a limited time to get it. A delay would have given them time to think and plan, but that effort was thrown out by the bankruptcy judge. Summit now all but holds the keys. There’s a hearing scheduled to confirm the auction result on January 15, giving the city just days to throw around its weight.
It’s not looking so good right now for the city, but what could happen next is anyone’s guess.
“I don’t think we have so many examples that sort of show us what’s possible here,” Ariel Hirsch of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board told me at the rally.
What we’re thinking about: Who is buying rent-stabilized buildings? Since the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 gutted the ability of landlords to raise those rents, it’s been said that rent-stabilized buildings are worth next to nothing. But clearly, someone is willing to pay for them. We’ve already profiled Peter Hungerford. This auction will give us another name. We’re hearing it’s a lot of local long-term landlords who plan to stay in the business. Got info about the folks getting into the rent-stabilized game as everyone is getting out? Email lilah.burke@therealdeal.com.
Elsewhere:
— Mamdani has endorsed Claire Valdez, a 36-year-old state Assembly member from Queens, in the race to represent New York’s seventh district in Congress. The district is prime “Commie Corridor” territory, incorporating parts of Bushwick, Ridgewood, Clinton Hill, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and the mayor’s own Astoria. Valdez is a fellow member of the Democratic Socialists of America. The seat was previously occupied by Nydia Velázquez and is also being pursued by Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
— More red light cameras are heading to New York City streets, writes Gothamist. The Department of Transportation has a goal of 600 cameras by the end of the year, up from 150.
A thing we learned: A growing number of Americans are getting their mortgages from places that aren’t banks. That number is now 64 percent, up from 42 percent in 2014.
Closing time
Residential: The top residential deal recorded Friday was $14 million for 53 West 53rd Street, 59B. The Midtown Central condo is 3,200 square feet. The property was last sold as a new development in 2020 for $12.8 million.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $15.2 million for 4275 Boston Road. The Eastchester industrial building is 72,248 square feet. UPS acquired the property from Excelsior Investors, who purchased the site five years ago for $8.1 million.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $11.9 million for 50 Bridge Park Drive, Unit 26A. The Brooklyn Heights condo is 4,500 square feet. Compass’ Lindsay Barrett, Taylor Schultz and Christopher Mohr are the listing agents.
— Joseph Jungermann
