H.U.D. Re-Rejects Starrett City Bid

The Feds today denied Clipper Equity’s bid for the Starrett City housing complex in Brooklyn for the second time, saying that the buyer would not be able to maintain the largest federally subsidized complex in the nation as affordable housing after paying $1.3 billion for it.

In a letter to Clipper’s lawyer, the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Alphonso Jackson, wrote that the revised proposal would have required additional rental subsidies from the government and a continuation of real estate tax abatements in order not to raise the tenants’ contribution beyond legal limits imposed by the housing programs to which they are entitled.

"The Department does not beleive that Clipper Equity's proposal is financially feasible to sustain the project as a long-term affordability housing resource," he wrote.

H.U.D. had denied an earlier proposal in March, and the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal had denied the second draft in April. That was the one H.U.D. rejected today, though maybe with a few changes.