Starrett City

Today's the deadline to bid on Brooklyn's Starrett City, the nation's largest federally subsidized housing complex. And, unless a dark horse bolts from the shadows, it looks like there will be only two bidders, both of which have community ties that could assuage the affordability concerns of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The two groups, according to media reports, are a partnership of Westbrook Partners, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Property and the New York City Labor Council, among others; and a partnership of the Clarrett Group, the Christian Cultural Center, Housing Partnership Development Corp. and the Cogsville Group.

HUD is expected to decide on a buyer for the more than 6,000-unit complex in the next few weeks.  read more »

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.  read more »

A spokeswoman for Clipper Equity, the would-be buyer of Starrett City that saw the state reject its takeover plan last week, objected to the notion that the deal is dead.

"The plan is and had been evolving," Clipper spokeswoman Lisa Linden told The Real Estate on Monday afternoon. "We are involved in a process. We are responding to the concerns of Secretary Jackson, Senator Schumer, Mayor Bloomberg, DHCR, Attorney General Cuomo and Congressman Towns. Responding to tenant concerns is also part of the process. Clipper Equity is in this to stay."

Whew! That's a lot of people to respond to!

- Matthew Schuerman

• No more gunfire across the bay for City Islanders.
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• Chumley's wall collapse sparks many happy memories.
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• Hey, apartment hunters, don't forget to ask about...
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• An author of lower Fifth finds 'the best place to be.'
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• Two West 56th Street townhouses closely linked.
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• More luxury housing overlooking Green-Wood Cemetery.
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• Mortgage products straining 'mathematical capacities.'
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• Co-op to condo conversion more trouble than its worth.
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• Security deposits--when can a new landlord demand one?
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• Can a co-op board member campaign for someone?
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• Housing slump hits state tax revenues nationwide.
[NY Times]
• Coffeeshop dusting off grit to please new East Village.
[NY Times]
• Hamptons papers to clash over real-estate advertising
[NY Times]
• Memories of the almost-2nd Avenue Subway.
[NY Times]
• City shutters Chumley's indefinitely, despite 'secure' building.
[NY Post]
• State rejects second Starrett City bid by Bistricer.
[NY Post]
• Battle looms in Albany over loft-tenants law.
[NY Post]
• Brokers push to land more foreign buyers.
[NY Post]
• Empire State Building owners sue parachuter for $12 M.
[Daily News]
• MTA to domolish buildings for 2nd Avenue Subway.
[Daily News] UPDATE:
• Face it: Jonathan Miller will appraise your apartment.
[New York]
• New York living as marketing tool nationwide.
[New York]

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Friday morning's New York Times seemed to suggest that David Bistricer's (and Bruce Teitelbaum's) second bid for Starrett City might have a chance. Indeed, it was all about how Mr. Bistricer was enlisting the help of ministers to take his case to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which holds the mortgage to the housing complex and was the entity that doomed the first bid.

But a letter last night from the state Department of Housing Conservation and Renewal (DHCR) may have killed the plan first. Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen wrote that the plan "would be unworkable under existing statutory law... For these reasons we must disapprove the plan."

"We read it - and more importantly, we understand that DHCR reads it - to mean that HUD or no HUD - the elements of the deal that require state approval will not be forthcoming - hence dead," Jonathan Rosen, a spokesman for the affordable housing advocacy group ACORN, said in an e-mail.

The DHCR letter says that the new plan would have raised rents to "street rents" and caused "the divestiture of all potentially income-producing non-residential property."

The Real Estate is waiting for a return call from Mr. Bistricer's spokesman.

The Times' Empire Zone blog has more on whether the proposal is dead or not here.

- Matthew Schuerman

• Police academy moving from Gramercy to Queens.
[NY Times]
• Bistricer calls out big guns on Starrett City deal.
[NY Times]
• City to launch 'Trans Fat Help Center' for restaurants.
[NY Sun]
• High rents drive out Astor Place Barnes & Noble.
[NY Post]
• Quinn proposes mortgage-counseling program.
[NY Post]
• MTA casts wide net for top NYC Transit post.
[Daily News]

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Jay Kennedy Remembered   To the Editor:    read more »

Jay Kennedy Remembered   To the Editor:    read more »

Congressman Towns Responds   To the Editor:    read more »

Andrew Cuomo isn’t doing interviews. (Really.)    read more »

Congressman Towns Responds   To the Editor:    read more »

Bruce Teitelbaum, the controversial former aide to Rudy Giuliani, has been scurrying behind the scen  read more »

A tipster says Mayor Bloomberg will celebrate the funding of 55,000 units of affordable housing, bringing him more than one-third of the way to his 165,000-unit goal, with six years to go.

Where will he proverbially uncork the Champagne? Where else? East New York, probably not too far from Starrett City, where another 6,000 units hang in the balance. As fast as he puts 'em up, they come down.

- Matthew Schuerman

• Clipper to submit new Starrett City plan to HUD.
[NY Post]
• Spitzer meets with Bloomberg over Javits expansion.
[NY Post]
• Trump wants Tavern on the Green; says "it's over."
[NY Post]
• 51 Astor Place going on the market.
[NY Post]
• New York magazine to ink move to Hudson Square.
[NY Post]
• Silverstein lashes out at trade-center insurers.
[NY Sun]
• Subprime-mortgage giant to go bankrupt.
[NY Sun]
• High-rise apartments rezoning along Harlem River.
[Daily News]

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Six months ago, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and real-estate powerhouse Tishman Speyer stood  read more »

• A tale of reaction to two sales: Starrett vs. Stuy Town.
[NY Times]
• Where are home prices now nationally?
[NY Times]
• More buildings ending open houses.
[NY Times]
• The multi-building look of 1 Gracie Square.
[NY Times]
• Home prices appreciating in the Bronx's Baychester.
[NY Times]
• Architect, developer of 48 Bond are women.
[NY Times]
• What co-op record isn't an owner entitled to see?
[NY Times]
• How to deal with owners who don't pay common charges.
[NY Times]
• Limits on rent-regulated landlords' "personal use" of units.
[NY Times]
• Agent teams a trend in Connecticut market.
[NY Times]
• Wi-Fi is the new air-conditioning for retailers.
[NY Times]
• Refashioning Campbell Apartment--in one night.
[NY Times]
• Man makes purple truck home in Brooklyn.
[Daily News]
• Relief among Starrett City residents.
[Daily News]
• New director of city's Office of Long Term Planning.
[Daily News]
• Bay Ridge church in coming condo deal.
[Daily News]
• Mortgage rates fall.
[WSJ]
• 2nd Avenue Subway groundbreaking weeks away.
[NY Post]
• Hundreds protest Trump Soho condo-hotel.
[NY Post]
• National Register lists Wall Street Historict District.
[NY Sun]
• Landmarks to vote on Sunnyside designation.
[NY Sun]

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U.S. HUD Secretary Alpohnso Jackson just announced at a press conference that he intends to stop the sale of Brooklyn's Starrett City, one of the largest federally subsidized housing units in the country.

"We are concerned about the buyer's financing," he said.

More on the story here.

-- Azi Paybarah

• When Manhattan renters decide to buy or to flee.
[NY Times]
• Changes along quiet Carnegie Hill block.
[NY Times]
• Flatiron-district home prices climb 30 percent in two years.
[NY Times]
• January market "particularly heated" among city's wealthy.
[NY Times]
• New help for subprime mortgage borrowers?
[NY Times]
• What to expect at the co-op board interview.
[NY Times]
• When rent-regulated place turns "marketplace creature."
[NY Times]
• Old friends hunt for Manhattan apartment.
[NY Times]
• Glimpsing the rats of a Greenwich Village eatery.
[NY Times]
• Elghanayans not "afraid to take chances" on developments.
[NY Times]
• Developers rush to use 421-a abatement before changes.
[NY Post]
• City cracks down on bogus bar, club security workers.
[NY Post]
• Politicians push to stop Starrett City sale.
[NY Post]
• South Street Seaport's Pier 17 mall may be torn down.
[Daily News]
• More on Columbia's West Harlem expansion plans.
[Daily News]
• Brooklyn Bridge Park costs could swell, expert says.
[Daily News]
• First Manhattan Pinkberry stores doing well.
[NY Sun]
• Legislature pushing to expand rent-regulation.
[NY Sun]

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Private School? Play Here! Public School? Wait Over There!    read more »

Private School? Play Here! Public School? Wait Over There!    read more »

Private School? Play Here! Public School? Wait Over There!    read more »

Saturday

10 a.m. The Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network announce details of a home ownership project at 106 West 145th Street at Lenox Avenue.

Noon. The New York City Council plays against NY State Legislators at Bronx Community College's Annual Legislative Classic basketball game at University Avenue and West 181st Street.

1 p.m. The city will inaugurate Bill Perkins as state senator for the 30th District, followed by a tribute to subway hero Wesley Autrey and a health fair at the Harlem Hospital Center, 506 Lenox Avenue.

1 p.m. New York University will host a "Day of Remembrance" program on the WWII internment of Japanese Americans at Brittany Hall, 55 E. 10th St.

4 p.m. Anglican Women's Empowerment and the Office of the Anglican Communion Observer to the United Nations present a panel discussion on "Ending All Forms of Violence and Discrimination Against the Girl Child" at the Trinity Church on Broadway at Wall Street.

John Edwards campaigns in New Hampshire.

Sunday

11 a.m. Council Member Leroy Comrie will discuss the N-Word Resolution at 506 MacDonough Street in Brooklyn

1 p.m. More than 20 members of the New York State Senate and Assembly, NY ACORN, city council members and Starrett City tenants will announce state legislation to force any new owner to keep Starrett City rent-stabilized if the complex is sold at City Hall.

2 p.m. Congressman Anthony Weiner will screen Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," for free, followed by a discussion with leading environmental scientists and policy experts in Rockaway at Queens College [updated].

3 p.m. Senator Hillary Clinton hosts the 7th Annual African American Heritage Celebration where she will honor notable African American leaders from New York at the AFL-CIO, 125 Barclay Street.

5 p.m. Senator Hillary Clinton attends and give brief remarks at a discussion of Senator Chuck Schumer's new book "Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time" at the 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue.

Barack Obama headlines a fundraiser in Louisville, Ky.

Monday

8 a.m. Craig Moffett, cable and satellite broadcasting analyist and vice president of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., will discuss the satellite radio merger of Sirius and XM in Washington. Airs on C-Span.

9 a.m. Quinnipiac University will release the results of a global "Thermometer" survey asking voters their feelings about other nations and whether they are friendly to the U.S.

10 a.m. NYC Council Committee on Civil Rights will have a hearing on the N-Word Resolution, a "Symbolic moratorium on the use of the n-word in NYC," at City Hall.

1 p.m. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will give a speech about health care reform to the National Press Club. Airs on C-Span.

Barack Obama headlines a fundraiser in Cleveland, Ohio.

Rudy Giuliani headlines a Virginia GOP fundraiser in Vienna.

John Edwards headlines a fundraiser in New Jersey.

Hillary Clinton campaigns in upstate New York.

-- Gillian Reagan

• Strong feelings inside Starrett City.
[NY Times]
• East River Science Park breaking ground next month.
[NY Times]
• Corzine also endorses Freedom Tower.
[NY Post]
• Atlantic Yards construction gets under way.
[NY Post]
• Sotheby's 1334 York Avenue on the market.
[NY Post]
• Tenant-signing race could start at WTC site.
[NY Sun]

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• East Village's Mayday Books losing its space.
[NY Times]
• New hotels help alter Long Island City landscape.
[NY Times]
• Paying a lot for unused house plans.
[NY Times]
• Parsing the psychology of home-pricing.
[NY Times]
• Harlem's Renaissance Theater to go, but exterior to stay.
[NY Times]
• Long Island summer-home buying season starts early.
[NY Times]
• Time Warner Center condo goes for $27M.
[NY Times]
• Cuomo raises concerns about Starrett City sale.
[NY Times]
• What first-time co-op buyers need to know.
[NY Times]
• What if the security deposit earns less than 1 percent?
[NY Times]
• Bourbon, optimism fuel Red Hook home renovations.
[NY Times]
• Lessons from hunting for daughter's co-op.
[NY Times]
• "Cautious exuberance" in Manhattan housing market.
[NY Times]
• Record Mart returning to Times Square subway station.
[NY Times]
• Checkered past of Starrett City bidder Bistricer.
[Daily News]
• Newer Chinatowns grow in outer boroughs.
[Daily News]
• The pros and cons of buying in the Financial District.
[Daily News]
• A look at preservation efforts in Greenwich Village.
[Daily News]
• Housing starts drop sharply in January.
[WSJ]
• Lawsuit: Upper Manhattan condo bars disabled.
[NY Post]

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Mike Bloomberg changed his mind. You no longer have to pay your parking tickets from yesterday.

Andrew Cuomo may have found a legal reason to block the $1.3 billion sale of the Starrett City.

The city's new DOT Commissioner may be Janette Sadik-Khan.

Rules for booking Rudy Giuliani, including restrictions on "direct, on-camera flash bulbs" are here.

There may not be many, but there are primaries this year. And they're on September 11th.

All the state lawmakers who failed to file their January 15 campaign finance report with the state Board of Elections are Democrats.

Is there an ethical problem with reporters joining an administration they covered?

Reminder: Newt Gingrich will debate Mario Cuomo.

Nominating a 2008 candidate who is married for the third time is a slightly more popular idea than nominating a 72-year-old, a homosexual or an atheist. Barack Obama's newest flack "is a Virgo who enjoys talking on phone with reporters and leaking like a sieve."

And above is William Alatriste's picture of Christine Quinn, who delivered her State of the City speech yesterday.

-- Azi Paybarah

So, a big-deal news conference takes place involving the nation's housing secretary, a U.S. senator, several state and local pols, and numerous housing activists regarding one of the hottest populist issues in the city. Just who is going to steal tomorrow's headlines?

Andrew Cuomo is taking the early lead, according to Web sites and blogs, since he discovered that David Bistricer, the winning bidder for Starrett City, was permanently banned from selling and offering co-operatives back in 1998. The Attorney General said he would enforce the ban should the developer try to convert any of Starrett City or build new for-sale units.

Here's the Times version. - Matthew Schuerman

Last week, no less than one Cabinet secretary, two Congressmen and two Senators vociferously and publicly chastized the $1.3 billion buy of Starrett City in eastern Brooklyn. Clipper Equity won the bidding in early February, prompting many to ask: How could the landlords ever turn a profit by keeping the apartment complex affordable?

Sen. Chuck Schumer was among those answering the question quickly last week, calling on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to nix the deal should Clipper not promise to keep the apartments cheap.

On Thursday, the Senator upped the ante:

Today U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer demanded Starrett Associates go back to square one on the Starrett City sale. The Senator, who is chair of the Senate Housing sub-committee said today that the bid process was fatally flawed, having excluded the federal government, which has subsidized Starrett City for years so that it could maintain its affordability. Schumer noted that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has the right to approve the deal, and has expressed deep skepticism due to the potential of massive loss of affordable housing stock.

- Tom Acitelli

Did those poor (rich) guys at Clipper Equity know what they were getting themselves into? Even George W. Bush is piling on. The press office for U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson is e-mailing the following statement on Starrett City:

"This transaction has the potential to threaten New York City's low-income housing market and those who need it. Starrett City is more than a piece of land--it is a community. As secretary of Housing and Urban Development, I will aggressively review this sale and give it close scrutiny."

UPDATE: A little after 8 p.m. on Monday, Sen. Hillary Clinton's office emailed The Real Estate that New York's junior Senator also wanted an aggressive HUD review of the Starrett City sale:

"HUD has a responsibility to approve or disapprove of the transfer of property like this... I remain extremely concerned that the outcome of this sale will be increased rents, forcing many people out of their homes."

- Matthew Schuerman

Sen. Chuck Schumer has joined a suddenly growing chorus of critics who think Starrett City's days as a bastion of affordable housing are decidedly numbered. The senior New York Senator said on Monday that new owner Clipper Equity, which offered $1.3 billion last week for the Brooklyn complex, will have to evict thousands of tenants and move units to market-rate. Otherwise, the numbers for the landlord won't add up to profitability. Mr. Schumer called on the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to block the deal unless Clipper agreed to keep Starrett affordable:

"Experts across the board agree: it will be impossible for someone paying this price not to convert the units into high-price rentals or ritzy condominiums. Without question, a sale at this price will change the character of Starrett forever."

Full release from the Senator's office after the jump.  read more »

UPDATE: Clipper Equity emailed The Real Estate this statement on Monday afternoon:

We have today met with various City, State and Federal officials and elected representatives regarding the future of Starrett City. There is unanimity on the part of all that it is crucial to protect long-term affordability at the 5,881-apartment development. We understand this must be achieved and we are confident this can be achieved. Our meetings were informative and productive and we look forward to further discussions regarding the specific mechanisms that will enable us to fulfill our mutual goal.

- Tom Acitelli

• One can tell critic Martin Fuller doesn't like Tom Wolfe by modest statements like: "From Bauhaus to Our House [is] perhaps the most ill-informed book ever written about architecture." [House + Garden]
• If you fit into the "bonus buyers and moneyed type" category, DUMBO is surely a perfect fit. And a chilly February weekend is surely the perfect time to see the open house of those "once-decrepit warehouses turned luxury lofts." [NY Mag]
• The Mayor has "questions" about Clipper Equities, the new owner of $1.3 billion Starrett City. Why? He tells his listeners out in radio land that Clipper isn't "a reputable landlord." [Real Deal]
• Manhattan Gnudi bars and tapas joints are all the epicurian rage. They'd be even more likeable without names like Degustation and Al Di La. [Gridskipper]
- Max Abelson
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At 3 a.m. on Thursday, the Times reports, Sam Levinson and David Bistricer of Berkshire Equities agreed to buy Starrett City for $1.3 billion.

"A spokesman for Starrett City Associates said this morning that the sellers were just waiting for the cash deposit."

Just how many brown paper bags was that?

This morning, ACORN is staging a protest with "two bus loads of Starrett City tenants" outside Berkshire Equities' Brooklyn headquarters, according to a press release.

- Matthew Schuerman

• Developers plan major far West Side apartment towers.
[NY Times]
• Reaping tax benefits of rental properties.
[NY Times]
• "Cold calculation," "appetite for risk" of buyers under 30.
[NY Times]
• Channeling Paris in East Village renovations.
[NY Times]
• Tracing Scott Joplin's life through city addresses.
[NY Times]
• Living in the "limited market" of Sunnyside, Queens.
[NY Times]
• Sleek new towers for Hell's Kitchen.
[NY Times]
• Using ethics as mortgage marketing tool.
[NY Times]
• Navigating property titles.
[NY Times]
• Understanding interest payments on security deposits.
[NY Times]
• What can a condo board request to know about a buyer?
[NY Times]
• Buying in Harlem for a longer commute.
[NY Times]
• Hispanic group advocates for construction jobs.
[NY Times]
• Costas Kondylis inside the New York mainstream.
[NY Times]
• Vornado modifies bid for Equity Office.
[NY Times]
• Getting inside--and seated--at the Waverly Inn.
[NY Post]
• Keep Starrett City affordable, residents and officials say.
[NY Post]
• Freedom Tower costs rise to $3 billion.
[NY Post]
• Hotel Indigo chain moving into city with Chelsea hotel.
[NY Post]
• City property assessments mean higher property taxes.
[Daily News]
• More on Equity Office's support for Blackstone bid.
[WSJ]
• Barclays, Brooklyn arena namesake, denies slavery ties.
[NY Sun]

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• This month's Metropolis cover-story is on The Piano Man: "This sense of transparency is part of the story," the architect says about his new NYT HQ. "It's about the art of telling the story by using form. And the idea [is] that the Times is a building and institution where the relationship with the city is more open, more permeable." Architecture cliches and media cliches go so well together! [Metropolis Magazine]
• Coney Island's Astrotower may be migrating "to an amusement park in the South." Or maybe the 275-foot-tall thrill-ride will be donated to Manhattan? Either way: acrophobes, beware. [NY Post]
• The impending of demolition of Red Hook's iconic Revere Sugar Refinery is being captured in real time on the newfangled Internets. The RSR owner, Thor Equities, will have some explaining to do. [Curbed]
• The sellers of Starrett City--the 140-acre Brooklyn sprawl--promise that the community's 14,000 residents won't be robbed of their housing subsidies after the impending big-buck sale. And the buyers won't raze the whole place either! "They'd have to evict tenants from 5,800 units, and that would take 58 years and cost them $500 million in legal fees." Doesn't sound that far-fetched. [Multi-Housing News]
- Max Abelson
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