New York is home to some of the world's most expensive retail real estate. Asking rents in the prime of Fifth Avenue have risen about 50 percent in five years to top $3,100 per square foot, or $6.2 million for a space the size of an average Starbucks, according to real estate firms CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield.
Manhattan landlords ask an average of about $94 per square foot per year, compared to $34 in San Francisco, $13 in Atlanta and $12 in Kansas City, Missouri, Cushman & Wakefield says.
National chains have expanded in New York City for six straight years, boasting 7,473 locations last year, according to the Center for an Urban Future, a public policy think tank.
More at the above link.
And this is what the REBNY thinks:
http://thevillager.com/2015/03/26/rebny-president-fires-back-says-shoppers-want-more-duane-reades/
The REBNY is rapidly destroying New York as we know it.
Question: Why does the TA have anything to do with the REBNY?
Question: Why does Dan Garodnick attend annual REBNY parties and is all smiley and friendly in that company?
Question: Why does Mayor de Blasio do likewise?
Pictured above: Steven Spinola, President of the REBNY, who is quoted a lot in the Villager.com article. Mayor de Blasio. Robbie Speyer, chairman of the REBNY and failed landlord of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village.
STR you just made me puke my breakfast up! Please warn when graphic images are going to be shown!
ReplyDeleteThis is what the Small Business Jobs Survival Act that is stalled in the City Council would do:
ReplyDelete"...establish a commercial lease renewal process which is fair to all parties, one which would give the tenants enough rights so that they can again bargain in good faith with the landlords to arrive at fair least terms. To keep government out of the decision making process and on the sidelines during the lease renewal negotiation process. The only voices to be heard in the bargaining process would be between the tenant and landlord, and from a mediator if they fail to mutually agree on the terms of the new lease. And only from an arbitrator if the mediation process fails to achieve a mutually agreement between the parties. No government formulas are ever involved, the law would create a cost effective system for commercial lease renewals, one where all the costs are shared equally between and landlord and tenant. Also, one where no taxpayers dollars are spent , the only costs would go to an arbitration organization..."
The REBNY is spending money to oppose it. To learn what you can do to help get it passed go here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/763749397012336/
#SaveNYC
I know. In fact, if I were an artist, I'd draw the Empire state connected to dreade, chase bank, chipotle, 7 11 and dunKin donuts.
ReplyDeletePriceless str.
REBNY would love Stringer as Mayor.
ReplyDeleteEarlier this year, at a black-tie event for the Real Estate Board of New York, two wealthy businessmen urged Stringer to take on de Blasio in 2017, said a source who saw the exchange. “If you run, I’ll raise a whole bunch of money for you,” one of the men said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/controller-stringer-aims-hold-de-blasio-accountable-article-1.2190290
Spinola whining about it being unconstitutional and that it may not even be legal or that the Mayor or City Council have no jurisdiction as if he control or dictates what is legal, what is constitutional and what power his electeds can exercise. Oh wait, he actually does have control over all that....
ReplyDelete....since when does he care what is legal and what is not. He does whatever he wants to whomever he wants and takes whatever he wants. The moment someone says no to him he childishly whines and no doubt calls his political friends to write him some laws to stop those telling him "no"
I support small business and this small business act and I vote. I vote for the politician who supports the people and supports our small business owners and communities.
Yes, that means there are very few politicians who get my vote. But in a time when we are not even giving our votes, my vote is valuable.
Cuomo's down in Cuba today discussing "Trade." I hope he hasn't gone there at the behest of his RE Masters who own him. If the scum that has destroyed New York City try to get their greedy tentacles around Cuba, I hope the Cubans kick their skeevy asses out unceremoniously.
ReplyDeleteA big part of the problem is that the property owners are heavily leveraged, buying properties with "other people's money".
ReplyDeleteThe lenders feel more comfortable with chain stores and banks; they're a known quantity, and likely to be more stable tenants. And, given the high purchase prices of the properties, the owner/borrowers need to get as much as possible from those tenants to cover their debt service.
It's another ugly byproduct of the white hot real estate market. Remember, after Times Square got the Bloomberg/Sadik-Kahn "makeover" they literally boasted that commercial rents in the area went way up. I guess, in their world, seeing Colony Music being replaced by Build-a-Bear is a sign of success.
Great articles STR - thanks. Spinola believes he owns all the politicians and he believes the People will take what they shovel our way, lying down. The REBNY does not take it lying down and the REBNY does not let politicians do ANYTHING he doesn't authorize when it comes to RE. The Middle Class homes and small businesses are under assault from the REBNY and their corporate alliances as Verizon. The amount of money Verizon paid to own politicians is grotesque.
ReplyDeleteThe People need to be at least equally assertive as the REBNY but really it is about time we are more assertive and stop their reign of terror on middle class homes and communities with their oppressive take, take, take and destruction they disguise as if it is in the name of progress. The only progress from the REBNY is in increasing their wealth, decreasing everyone else's assets, overdeveloping land, decreasing green space and blue sky.
The REBNY is the antithesis of "progress"
Spinola "Even if the bill were somehow to pass, he assured that big real estate would not take it sitting down.
“This is a constitutional taking, and it will be legally challenged,” he stated."
"The REBNY is rapidly destroying New York as we know it.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Why does the TA have anything to do with the REBNY?
Question: Why does Dan Garodnick attend annual REBNY parties and is all smiley and friendly in that company?
Question: Why does Mayor de Blasio do likewise?"
AGREE.
The deception they pulled in the PCVST community these recent years is morally and ethically bankrupt.
delusional sociopaths
ReplyDeleteyou can't make this stuff up.....
http://gawker.com/90-000-new-yorkers-apply-to-live-in-poor-door-high-rise-1699175066
I went for a walk across 6th Street between First and Second Avenues tonight. Hadn't been down there for quite a long time and I was shocked at how much it has changed. It used to be bustling with people going and coming from the busy little Indian restaurants that lined the south side of the street. Now now. Many of them have been driven out and the street is dead. I asked an employee of one of the restaurants that is still open and he told me that the landlords have driven business out because when it comes to renewing their leases, the rent increases are impossible. What a surprise.
ReplyDeleteI swear there is a special place in Hell for the greedy landlords and developers who are destroying this City. I hope that some day there will be another RE bust and they get their come-uppance. They're like a swarm of locusts gobbling up every bit of land and displacing hard-working real people. They are worse than an epidemic of antibiotic-resistant clap!
DeB wants to recycle more garbage. He could start by getting rid of the toxic garbage he's flanked by in that photo. If he cares about the environment why doesn't he say something about the destruction of PCVST, especially all the building on open spaces and the massive arborcide.
ReplyDeletewow. just wow.
ReplyDeleteTenants have too little protections, too few laws of protections and landlords have too many wide open loop holes. Why does it have to get this far before city government wakes the hell up and starts working for the people?
Troubles in Building Across From East Village Blast Site
Residents at 128 Second Ave. in East Village haven’t had heat, hot water or cooking gas for weeks
"Residents of 128 Second Ave. say Icon has neglected the building, bullied rent-stabilized tenants and hired unqualified workers to do construction without permits. Icon denies the claims."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/troubles-in-building-across-from-blast-site-1429578060
Heastie, Silver, more of the same -- alarming abuse of NYC court system by Democrats for personal enriches. How is this possible? And how lucky are we to have the New York Times reporters doing pieces on Towers and now this. Keep up the good work N Y Times!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/nyregion/carl-heastie-new-york-assembly-speaker-benefited-from-mothers-embezzling.html?_r=0
It is true they are putting in lunch tables for CW CR workers. These guys brainstorm ways to increase their money-take while increasing the noise pollution with Oval concerts, overcrowdedness, rowdy student population, gathering lunch/party tables instead of quieter benches for outdoor enjoyment. Increasing Noise pollution isn't their only talent.
ReplyDeleteWith the strip mall, the gargantuan office building, the student population that required water valves in every basement, they must have increased the carbon footprint and electric bill as much as they increased the rent roll. Let's not forget to mention their talent for poor design, where before all industrial pipes, generators, and such were out of sight, these brainy architects put them on roofs, in children's playgrounds, and in our once beautiful Oval park.
The daily walk from the Oval to First Avenue on the way to work, and the reverse walk home was once a peaceful respite from the noisy streets of Manhattan and now is a continuation of anywhere else in Manhattan, but with lower quality amenities. It is a shame what they are doing to this beautiful property.
They get the world record for number of ways to destroy a property and an entire community.
'Totally Schizophrenic'
ReplyDelete"Meanwhile, for all their populist rhetoric in defense of the so-called "99 percent," major labor unions and the Democratic administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio have supported such a shift, which could send hundreds of millions of dollars in new pension fees to the 1 percenters in the financial industry."
"totally hypocritical"
"totally status quo"
stringing us suckers along.....
http://www.ibtimes.com/new-york-city-comptroller-scott-stringer-pushes-give-wall-street-more-pension-cash-1891518
Very troubling indeed. We need the SEC to investigate and the City to be transparent with how and where they are investing, especially their real estate deals which we now know are hurting communities and small business.
ReplyDelete"Former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney Ted Siedle said the comptroller’s insistence on exposing his city’s pension fund to higher-risk, higher-fee investments is concerning.
“For public funds, investing in high-cost, high-risk 'alternative investments' is highly problematic,” Siedle said. “My forensic investigations have revealed billions in undisclosed fees to private equity, hedge fund, and real estate firms. The lack of transparency is troubling, especially given that the SEC recently found widespread wrongdoing in the private equity industry.”
Sound familiar
ReplyDelete..replace trade deal with brookfield deal and you have the crap that is going down here.
http://elizabethwarren.com/blog/you-cant-read-this
Have you seen what’s in the new TPP trade deal?
Most likely, you haven’t – and don’t bother trying to Google it. The government doesn’t want you to read this massive new trade agreement. It’s top secret.
Why? Here’s the real answer people have given me: “We can’t make this deal public because if the American people saw what was in it, they would be opposed to it.”
If the American people would be opposed to a trade agreement if they saw it, then that agreement should not become the law of the United States."
STR, where are you? Where is your voice of sanity in this crazy place? Have you seen the TA fb recently? They are going on and on and on about people who smoke outside; who put their hands out the window to smoke; who smoke on the benches near the playgrounds - as if the smoke could actually reach some previous snowflake's lungs. This is becoming a tyranny spearheaded by these Monster Moms and the organic shit nuts.
ReplyDeleteOn top of all that, John Marsh and Garodnick are recruiting people to knock on doors on Sunday morning to encourage tenants to attend the rent rally. I swear, if they dare to knock on my door before the crack of noon on Sunday, I will rip their fucking heads off. Some of us actually work for a living 50 hours a week.
When did Marsh and Garodnick ever do anything useful that would actually benefit beleagured, long-suffering tenants? When did they ever take on the swine who run this dump and take issue of the building of commercial enterprises on the once-beautiful tree-lined open spaces; when did they take on management about the denuding and raping of the Oval? I'll tell you when, NEVER!
They knock my door Sunday morning and I will have two words to say to them and they won't be "Good Morning!"
We have the same willfully ignorant politicians as NY with the same ill-conceived housing plans that enrich the wealthy, displace the working class, and exploit the poor as a means for endless failed policies to be used as excuses for more policies to enrich the wealthy. Equally as laughable as a housing plan that builds 80% of homes for 1% of the population and calls it an affordable housing plan. It is bloody ridiculous insanity.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2015/apr/24/politicians-ignorance-lining-landlords-pockets
WELL LADDEE FRICKIN DA! LETS STIR UP THE STUY TOWN WITCHES CAULDRIN AND GET EVERYONE COMPALING ABOUT EVERYTING ELSE HERE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT CHAIN STORES. WHATS DOES THIS MENA? NOTHING. EVERYONE WILL JUST SIT ON THEIR DUGGFFFS BEHIND A KEYBOARD AND COMPALING ABOUT HOW TERINGL THINGS ARE. NEXT! WORTHY OF DISCUSSION I TURNED ON THE WATER IN MY TUB THIS MORNING AND A WATER MOCISIN CAME OUT AND ATTACKEDD MY HUSBAND THIS IS THE SECONF TIME THIS MOTN THAT SNAKE HAS COME OUT OF OUR SINK MOSTLY PROBABLY NECAUSE OF THE CONTISUTCION NEAR OUR BUILDING IM WAITING FOR THE DAY WHEN GODZILLA POPS UP FROM OVAL KIDS AND EATS US ALL.
ReplyDeleteI scream
ReplyDeleteYou scream
We all scream
No one cares
The PCVST so called Tenant Led bid is good for investors said by:
ReplyDeleteJP Morgan Chase
Dan praised JP Morgan assessment as good news and independent. (good news for the investors!)
Investors = REBNY, Tishman Speyer, Brookfield ETC
No one ever said the Tenant led bid is financially good for tenants. Why? Because tenants are footing the bill and paying off the Investors investment and paying twice the value after paying "market rate" whoever came up with that number.
They keep telling us it is good because we will "have say" over the property. Sure, why don't I pay off the investors so I can have one meaningless vote and pay too much for my apartment and be forced to screw over my neighbors renting with endless mci charges. That is not the community I signed up for.
At the @ST_PCV_Tenants @DanGarodnick @BrianKavanaghNY @bradhoylman rent regulation meeting.
ReplyDeleteHoylman, Kavanagh, Garodnick coordinating their tweets.
Kavanagh calls Garodnick "Tenant-In-Chief"
....not so fast there Kavanagh, the Brookfield deal has not gone through yet, so Dan is not the anything in chief and let's hope he never runs or acts like he rules this community.
Garodnick and Kavanagh ran same photo on their twitters fed to them at same time by same photographer. Dan sitting in audience is a pr ruse he might as well be upon the stage.
ReplyDeleteSame tricks Same game Same three local amigos emulating the State three amigos in a room.
at pcv st meeting kavanagh hoylman
ReplyDeletefront row is reserved seating for photo ops
Marsh is feeding photos to Kavanagh Hoylman Garodnick for photo ops on twitter. Garodnick reserved seat in front row called "Tenant in Chief" by Marsh and Kavanagh. No Meredith Kane to be seen yet. No money man backer from Brookfield on stage or sitting by Garodnick (or at least I don't think there is).
ReplyDeleteMarsh opened meeting. Still President. As if anyone bought the claim the troll made who said he was stepping down then confirmed Marsh was stepping down. Sorry troll, no one believes anything you say.
ReplyDeleteBad news: everything they are saying and doing will only set us up for a few pittance buildings marked for RS, maybe 20% like DeBlas plan. Begging for scraps still left, barely.
ReplyDeleteSmall turn out for pcvst meeting. Mostly the seniors and RS and not many MR. No sense of community.
ReplyDeleteI really did have high hopes.
ReplyDeleteDisappointed in Kavanagh Hoylman meeting.. We could send a billion post cards and it would not get the same attention or response from Cuomo as 1 phone call from Spinola.
Post cards do not work so why are they still telling us to do things that do not work? We need new leadership with new ideas with a new plan. Cuomo does not care and will double cross WFP, Teachers, and NYC tenants. No amount of post cards will change that.
REBNY plays hard ball and swinging for the fences scoring home runs. We are sometimes stepping up to the plate, sometimes swinging the bat, and rarely bunting for a base.
come on.....we need bigger, bolder, better. We need to blow REBNY out of PCVST and out of the ball park.
This is not a Wall Street city. This is not a REBNY city.
This is New Yorker's city.
A New Yorker's State.
One person, One vote.
Equal weight each and all votes.
No matter how rich or poor.
One person. One vote.
And no more Spinola / Banks directly calling pols and commissioners. We all call 311 or we all get our calls answered directly by the pols and commissioners.
And there you have it. Dan Garodnick's final tweet from today's meeting / post meeting is a message from CW CR and the so called Tenant Association about the playground with the train reopening.
ReplyDeleteDan Garodnick @DanGarodnick · 13m 13 minutes ago
Attn StuyTown/Peter Cooper parents: the long lost train playground (bt 16-18th Sts) has reopened. @PCVSTLiving @ST_PCV_Tenants
3 retweets 0 favorites
OK, happy to have reported the coordination today but this is the first and last day I will ever read tweets from Garodnick and his messages he promotes for CW CR. YUCK!
Later blog and twitterverse!
Please don't leave us forever, STR. ENJOY your well-deserved break. We love you and appreciate you maybe more than we show it. You are THE BEST!
ReplyDeletexxxxxooooo
This is not a Wall Street city. This is not a REBNY city.
ReplyDeleteThis is New Yorker's city.
A New Yorker's State.
One person, One vote.
Equal weight each and all votes.
No matter how rich or poor.
One person. One vote.
Would all be true if we had ethical politics in New York. Decent, moral leaders. Until then, it will only get worse. Buckle up - nothing will change here.
Thanks, 2:10 AM.
ReplyDeleteJust need a vacation from it all, and a recharging of energy. I'm sure nothing will change!
BTW, was I dreaming or did the TA and Dan Garodnick arrange a Sunday morning meeting at Oval Cafe from where they were going to "knock on doors" to talk to tenants about important RS issues? I saw a very small group this Sunday morning (about 5 people) and then there was nothing. The TA Facebook page has also been pruned of this meeting.
ReplyDeleteNo, I was wrong. The info about this event is still posted. Almost no one showed up, however. Way to go TA and Dan!
ReplyDelete>>Join Council Member Dan Garodnick and TA President John Marsh as they door knock on ST and PCV doors to involve neighbors in the campaign to strengthen rent regulations.
Too many young families and recent tenants are being ambushed by huge rent increases upon renewal. You can help end that by supporting the legislative effort to close the #PreferentialRent loophole which allows landlords to raise rents upon renewal to the above hyper-market Legal Rents.
Join your neighbors and have some fun advocating for stable rents and a stable community.<<
Question here: Does management care or not that tenants are now calling repeatedly 311 on noise issues? The rental cops don't handle it and neither does our landlord. Posting this on Yelp. Tired of fucking being stomped on from asssholes above us who let the kids go wild and don't have carpets. No manners, losers.
ReplyDeleteTA sent out letters for us to all mail to Cuomo and etc. Will it matter?
ReplyDeleteI don't think Marsh and Garodnick accomplished much with their door-knocking mission!
ReplyDeleteRead T&V blog and see how Campus Crock is trying to get the job of managing coop city in the Bronx. Read what the current property manager of this dump, David Sorise, says about about how well CR does its job. Unbelievable! The man lives in fantasy land. He goes on about how they respond to heat complaints so efficiently. I guess that's why many of us had to buy space heaters to keep warm during this past winter. I can't believe the gall of these people. The coop city tenants should read this blog and the TA fb and riot if CR gets the job of running them into the ground.
How about this for a line-up of crooks! The Rogues Gallery! Btw, are they all graduates of Compass Rock University? LOL!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.compassrock.com/management-team/
In Compass Rock pursuit of Co-Op city to destroy that community there too they lie about their accomplishments but they do tell a truth that they were only acting in the interest of Robbie's investors so they did everything to this property and community to bleed it dry and give to the investors -- investors who willingly chose to invest in Robbie's scheme to destroy us in the first place. We got hit twice - first by Robbie's investors then by Compass Rock to make us pay back Robbie's investors. Compass Rock had the assistance of politicians to carry out the plan to help Robbie's investors in his evil plan. The politicians and Compass Rock were all helping the investors in Robbie's evil 2006 plan. It is the job of the politicians to protect the people. But these crooks chose to help the evil investors and make us, the people, pay for Robbie and Brookfield's investors. The local politicians for co-op city should be forewarned about how the politicians here completely failed at doing their jobs. We can only wait and watch for their schemes to come back to haunt them all. What a bunch of evil crooks.
ReplyDeleteApril 26, 2015 at 7:13 PM when you call 311 give the names of the neighbors who are causing the noise. Get their names on the record. The list of 311 noise complaints goes to the police precinct. Use names of the noise makers to get them held accountable and to stop. Also to an earlier poster, yes Compass Rock on purpose places partying loud college students in empty apartments near RS tenants and sanctions their having parties every weekend. A group of partying students in our building told me Compass Rock had them do this several years ago.
ReplyDeleteMarsh is such a suck-up to Garodnick. It's nauseating.
ReplyDeleteAs for DeBlasio with his arm around Speyer, the jerk who inflicted all the debt and the ghoulish CR on us tenants, I will never vote for him again. I think I would vote for anybody or nobody, but not him.
anyone see the new yelp reviews? So entertaining.
ReplyDelete8:51 - CR does this to all of us. Don't single out RS - again, sigh sigh , we are all RS and CR wants NONE OF US.
ReplyDeleteStr , can you get through to these people. SLOWLY now. WE are all RS.
Does Donalda know about the 311 calls we're starting to make? Repeatedly.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't management post on every floor , in every lobby noise reminders to tenants. Be mindful people live underneath you. Hardworking, tired people. Your kids can play ball outside at one of 14 playgrounds. Insure proper carpeting that is not tissue thin. Stop behaving like hillbillies.
ReplyDelete"WE are all RS."
ReplyDeleteYes, thank you for your post. But all of the renovated apartments that were taken out of NYS RS and then put back in as per the Roberts ruling will lose their RS status (unless something is done) once the J-51 tax breaks expires in June 2020. That was the whole point, Met Life and TS were “double dipping” the J-51 tax breaks, taking apartments out of the RS world. For those posters who constantly deride the NYS RS law because they pay outrageous preferential /legal rents, there are many NYS RS protections that are vital, including the right to renew one's lease.
And also, the hatred for the TA has become pathological on this blog. I am still waiting for you all to run as Board members to change it. Oh wait the TA is beyond redemption, it is corrupt, and it can never change. But then, where is your alterative organization that I would readily join if the mission statement would be to put the conversion pipe dream on the shelf for now and focus on QOL issues, safety, changing the corruption of the DOB and strengthening (the status quo is a death sentence)the NYS RS law which includes MCIs? Waiting.
"8:51 - CR does this to all of us. Don't single out RS - again, sigh sigh , we are all RS and CR wants NONE OF US. "
ReplyDeleteThere are RS and there are RS. Not all the same. There are the older RS tenants who have been here a long time and are paying a relatively low rent; then there are the new "RS" tenants, who are paying "preferential" rents which are much higher than the older RS rents. It's a mess. John Marsh likes to call the latter RS tenants the "New Stabilizers." CR wants to get us all out so they can churn the apartments and complete the dormification of PCVST. They get rid of the newer, high-rent RS by raising their rent to something ridiculous at renewal time and they get rid of the older RS tenants by harassing them with frat boys and woo-hoo girls and encouraging them to party loudly.
Bottom line is: they want to make us all move out so they can make this a total dorm/transient housing complex and they will do anything they can to accomplish their goals. These are people who would sell their souls to the devil if they could get the right amount of cash. We are not dealing with decency and morality here. We are not dealing even with basic American Capitalism here. We are dealing with evil bastards here.
I wouldn't be surprised if they next offered tenants cash buyouts just to get us out of here. You know there only goal is to keep churning this place until the rents are laughable, which they pretty much are now. This place has become a HOTEL! NO STABILITY!
ReplyDelete"These are people who would sell their souls to the devil if they could get the right amount of cash. We are not dealing with decency and morality here. We are not dealing even with basic American Capitalism here. We are dealing with evil bastards here."
ReplyDeleteTrue.
The Mci s continue and they will only increase. I'll be paying almost $3,000 for my R Stabilized One bedroom in a few years and honestly, it's too much as i don't earn enough. So then i'll be 65 and retiring and that 3k will then be 4k. I can't keep up.
ReplyDeleteHas the NY Times done any follow up to their Towers piece? Would be interesting to see map of the 5 boroughs color coded by what is Chinese owned, Russian owned, Middle East owned, Brazil owned, India owned, and how little real estate is still American owned. Word is most of Manhattan and Brooklyn is Chinese owned with Russian owned a close second. NYC is being sold out from under Americans.
ReplyDelete