Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Guterman Site on Co-op Conversion



The Guterman side of the story. Online now. Questions answered. [?]
Forum, too.

See: www.stpcvfacts.org

From the company's press release:

Guterman Westwood Partners aims to foster a successful working relationship with the residents of Stuyvesant Town & Peter Cooper Village. The co-op conversion plan proposed by Guterman Westwood Partners details and addresses many of the concerns that residents have about the future of Stuyvesant Town & Peter Cooper Village. The firm's goal is to work with the tenants, as well as the broader public, in continuing the tradition of reasonably priced housing and strong community atmosphere that has been present at the property since its founding.

The www.stpcvfacts.org website offers straightforward answers to the tough questions that community residents have been raising and talking about for years. It provides background information on Guterman Westwood Partners and provides a forum for resident and public inquiry regarding the conversion process, and the firm's intended participation therein. Guterman Westwood Partners believes that no conversion of the community can or should occur without the support of the vast majority of its current residents.

Gerald Guterman, Managing Partner of Guterman Partners and one of the most experienced residential property professionals in the City of New York, notes, "When the details of our plan are objectively compared with plans suggested by others, residents will recognize that our firm aims to produce the best value possible for the community in an orderly and efficient conversion process. Of course, no one other than the mortgagees control the property at this stage. But when the mortgagees' disposition process proceeds later this year, we will be deeply involved as a strong voice for the residents of the Stuyvesant Town & Peter Cooper Village community, with the backing and commitment to see an acquisition and conversion through for the mutual benefit of our firm and the residents."

More here.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found the new site underwhelming. I was actually looking forward to seeing it.

It strikes me as more of an engine to generate contact information than to educate and foster debate.

That said, I think we'd all be better off if we had a couple more of these guys fighting over our affection...

MBaaar said...

STR is a great place to review what's happening. Please visit my site, too.

http://www.pcvstconversionforum.blogspot.com/

It's 100% focused on the conversion.

Anonymous said...

I do NOT want to buy my apartment. Why are we who do not want to buy have no representation? The place is a DUMP!!! Filthy dorm built on toxic waste dump. Brown water, little to no heat in winter, filthy hallways, filthy, substandard laundry equipment, rodents banquet for a recycling area. What the f*** is there to entice us to buy? Oh, I forgot, rotten plumbing and "wobbly" elevators. The only thing that we can constantly rely on is filth, flys, roaches and rats. Wow! What a deal!

Anonymous said...

10:56,

I dont understand, why dont you move if you have so much hate for stuytown.

Based on your rant, even if you pay $1,500 a month its not worth it.

Anonymous said...

i agree!!! how the F can you live somewhere you hate so much? Unless you're a ?

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 8:48 am, I am not the poster of the "rant" you responded to, but I do totally agree with what the poster said! It is not that easy to just pick up and move, no matter how vile your living conditions have become. I say "have become" because they were not always like this (apart from the toxic soil and brown water and the former we did not even know about until relatively recently). Stuyvesant Town used to be a well-run, clean and pleasant place to live until it because the main course of a feeding frenzy of hungry, avaricous real estate sharks. They tore it apart, sucked all the blood and then left what was left of the bloodied and battered carcas, that being what we are living in today.

Anonymous said...

"I do NOT want to buy my apartment. Why are we who do not want to buy have no representation? The place is a DUMP!!! Filthy dorm built on toxic waste dump. Brown water, little to no heat in winter, filthy hallways, filthy, substandard laundry equipment, rodents banquet for a recycling area. What the f*** is there to entice us to buy? Oh, I forgot, rotten plumbing and "wobbly" elevators. The only thing that we can constantly rely on is filth, flys, roaches and rats. Wow! What a deal!"

I agree with everything you said, but to answer the question of "what the f*** would entice us to buy?", well the enticement is that your unit will be worth more that what you pay for it. It's as simple as that. Of course I'm hoping that after the conversion things that you mentioned will be addressed and rectified, but even if things stayed as they are currently my first point stands. This place is a dump though, no question.

Anonymous said...

To Anon January 26, 2012 10:56 PM


WAAAAAAH!

I think the squirrels need to be fed.

Anonymous said...

I'm sick of hearing people tell others to move if they "don't like it here." That's a short-timers attitude if I ever heard one.

Anonymous said...

"I'm sick of hearing people tell others to move if they "don't like it here." That's a short-timers attitude if I ever heard one."

I too am sick of being told to move if I don't like it. The people who say that are totally unaware of what the place was like before it was turned over to the assholes like themselves who ruined it. I refuse to move, no matter how bad it is or continues to get. I believe that the neglect and filth and noise are tactics being employed by an unscrupulous owner/manager to drive long-term tenants out so that their apartments can be tarted up and rented or sold for an astronomical profit.

Anonymous said...

Well it sure would have been nice if Brookfield and the TA would have had a similar web site up and running.

Anonymous said...

I say move because the place seems great to me. I dont know what your talking about in terms of dirty conditions, I actually think they spend too much on landscaping.

I will buy in a second, and when I sell in 10 years for 50% more than what I paid and your still in the same boat your in now, dont say I didnt warn you.

Anonymous said...

Advice needed. The floor above us has a tenant screaming throughout the day. Very disturbing. Speaks NO english so we cannot communicate to politely ask her to stop.

Been going on for about a year now.

Anonymous said...

What should happen when STPCV tenants inevitably move on? Sounds like some expect the apartment to be sealed and a memorial plaque installed on the door.

Without conversion or a radical reformation of the RS laws (including vacancy decontrol repeal), this complex will be a souless full MR, corporate owned dorm/short stay hotel/group home. Pining for the good old days will not help matters.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>Advice needed. The floor above us has a tenant screaming throughout the day. Very disturbing. Speaks NO english so we cannot communicate to politely ask her to stop.

Been going on for about a year now.<<

Have you called security/pubic safety? How many times? Have your neighbors called?

Anonymous said...

"Advice needed. The floor above us has a tenant screaming throughout the day. Very disturbing. Speaks NO english so we cannot communicate to politely ask her to stop."

Gee, she is really enhancing the value of the apartments adjacent to her.

Anonymous said...

Some of us simply DON'T WANT to buy our apartments. There can be many and varied reasons for not wanting to buy. Maybe finances, maybe don't feel the property is a worthwhile long-term investment, maybe don't want to spend the rest of our lives here and have no interest in gambling on a turnover profit in a few years. Some of us just simply want to rent. That doesn't mean that we have no right to complain about the lousy conditions that have come about over the past few years. We have every right to complain about the filth and neglect and the atrocious laundry equipment, as well as the screaming, braying students. I repeat, we have EVERY RIGHT to complain about these things. You are not paying my rent for me so don't tell me that I should stop complaining or move. I, and everyone else here, are entitled to a decent standard of cleanliness and quality of life and should not be harassed by wannabee buyers because we don't share their enthusiasm for the "conversion" and we should not be told to move out if we don't like it. We are paying to live here. It is not a gift. Whether we pay $1,500 or $4,000 per month, it is our money we are using to pay the rent (well, maybe mommy and daddy pay for some) and we are entitled to decent conditions and to complain if we don't have those conditions.

Anonymous said...

12:32--Yes, you have every right to sound bitter and whining and have no solution to the problem. Don't buy your apartment. But as 11:24 said: "Without conversion or a radical reformation of the RS laws (including vacancy decontrol repeal), this complex will be a souless full MR, corporate owned dorm/short stay hotel/group home. Pining for the good old days will not help matters."

It really doesn't. It just alienates you, it doesn't rally others.

frustrated with haters said...

Did anyone get that postcard sent about the conversion? It's horrible! It has a photo of an apartment complex with a park, but it is NOT STUY TOWN!! It's ridiculous- they try and sway us in one direction, but can't bother putting a photo of the actual complex? It's comical.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

I have the card and will upload it later this evening or tomorrow morning. I don't recognize those buildings in the middle. They look a bit like Stuy Town but Photoshopped.

Anonymous said...

RE; the noise problems (screaming yelling tenants) another reason some of us do not want to buy. There are so many noise problems here.

Anonymous said...

Pining for the good old days will not help matters."
It really doesn't. It just alienates you, it doesn't rally others. >

Not looking to rally others. I just want to make the point that those of us who do not want to buy have just the same rights as those who do and we don't have to be silent. Especially a silent majority! I hope it works out well for those of you who want to buy and maybe you will be able to get the place back to being a good place to live. Just don't be contemptuous of those of us who either cannot afford to buy or simply don't want to buy. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Our very angry neighbor decided not to finish up his lease and has moved out of state. He rented the place to loud, obnoxious and rude subtenants who have a party which spills into the hallway every weekend. Not planning to bother with the lame security calling bull__it, who can i report this to directly by phone or letter (in management)? thanks/ pretty lousy living here.

Anonymous said...

Poster with obnoxious sublet neighbors, please email Adam Rose.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>I say move because the place seems great to me. I dont know what your talking about in terms of dirty conditions, I actually think they spend too much on landscaping.

I will buy in a second, and when I sell in 10 years for 50% more than what I paid and your still in the same boat your in now, dont say I didnt warn you<<

So you want to flip your apartment and make money out of it? You realize, of course, that that's the attitude that quickly gets apartments out of rent stabilization and into "unaffordable" for the middle class?

Regarding living here, I would say ST/PCV have definite problems, which hopefully will be addressed more rigorously as time goes on, but that I (and I suspect many like myself) do like living here, all things considered. By "living here," I mean not just in this complex, but in Manhattan. It's something worth fighting for, I think.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

"Without conversion or a radical reformation of the RS laws (including vacancy decontrol repeal), this complex will be a souless full MR, corporate owned dorm/short stay hotel/group home. Pining for the good old days will not help matters."

I'd go for the radical reformation. That's what the TA and every tenant organization, and every RS tenant in NYC should be fighting for. I still have not received an answer as to how condo conversion is going to make this place "affordable" to the middle class. It will do the opposite, in fact, with tenants' blessings.

Anonymous said...

" I still have not received an answer as to how condo conversion is going to make this place "affordable" to the middle class. "

I hear you STR, I'm still waiting for an answer as to how RS and MCI'S are going to KEEP this place affordable. I support this conversion 100%.

Anonymous said...

I still have not received an answer as to how condo conversion is going to make this place "affordable" to the middle class. "

Quite simply, a conversion will secure RS for STPCV beyond the J-51 expiration date. Without it, RS apts will be steadily lost through vacancy decontrol with a huge, probably overwhelming majority, being lost upon at J-51 expiration in 2020. To forego conversion and gamble on a repeal of vacancy decontrol is a high wire act.

Anonymous said...

STR,

I was the one who said I will make $$$ in 10 years off the apartment.

There is no saving this place as middle class housing except thru the
conversion process. It seems like the G-W plan is better in this way, (units that are not bought will be sold to a non profit entity intending to hold these units as R-S units)

The Brookfield plan I think takes too much $$$$ out of the complex, only long term affordable aspect of it is the units that will be sold as limited profit units

TAKEYOURSHOEOFFstudents said...

LOL at least if I were illegal subletting I 'd keep the parties to a bare minimum!

Anonymous said...

You can do something to get the buildings cleaned- call 311, file a complaint with HPD and they will send a city inspector to issue violations. if every fed-up tenant did this, Rose would be on top of maintenance. They would have no choice. Remember there are over 30,000 people living here. We could really shake things up! All it takes is a phone call. As for the noise complaints, there is a thing called "warrantee of Habitability"(applies to dirty conditions too) that states you landlord must provide a safe and habitable living quarters. You might have to get a mediator involved, but it beats complaining and feeling powerless.

Anonymous said...

Yes. Let's pick a date and all send the emails to complain. Bombard them.

wdyt?

Anonymous said...

Why was the meting at ps 40 for families? what was the big secret? where are the notes?

This sounds so slimy fishy.