We've been howling about this for some time:
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/11/05/flex-apartments-boosting-stuy-towns-growing-bottom-line-trd-analysis/
WHY, WHY, WHY have the TA and our Councilman Dan Garodnick not taken a serious look at what is going on with these "flex" apartments and the DOB filings of "no change" in use or occupancy???
A potential massive scandal may be looking us straight in the face, and the politicians and our TA do NOTHING
115 comments:
What Blackstone has done is a 20-year deal with the Devil.
If they keep with CW’s mode, of turning over approximately 300 rent stabilized apartments a year, within 20 years there will be zero rent stabilized apartments left. You do not need to be a mathematical genius to figure that out.
Sure they will keep those 5,000 apartments in a lottery system that the lucky winners will be able to move into a non renovated apartment for approximately $3,200.00 a month, but after 2035 all bets are off, and those apartments will go to market rate.
The addition to turn each apartment into a so called luxury apartment with pseudo high end appliances and extra rooms will continue, no one from the DOB or the tenants association will enforce the more than 3 unrelated tenants living in the same apartment law.
All you have to do is look at the new apartment just to the left of Associated above the recycling area to see a formally non apartment, now turned into a high end apartment with luxury views and sounds of the delivery dock. That is the way this place is going.
Adam Rose fwiw got rid of a bunch of noisy asshole tenants causing issues - i know this firsthand and he and Rose were very helpful with tenant issues for self and SIL who also lives here. I'm sure that's why they're gone and management current and future frowns upon upsetting the students, the troublemakers hoping we'll all move. I'M NOT LEAVING.
Check this out:
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/11/05/sweet-deal-blackstone-wont-have-to-pay-back-citys-144m-stuy-town-loan/
So now we are giving 144 million in subsidies to companies with billions at their disposal.
Where is the lawyer for the tA here?
John Marsh commented on the TA fb that this is a "murky" situation. Why, of why, did he not try to do something about it when he was with the TA leadership? Why does the TA turn a blind eye to so much of the murky stuff that goes on here? Maybe they cannot do too much about it, but they could at least make some noise! Why don't they pressure their favorite politician, DG, to address the murk? SMFH.
The TA was too "laser focused" on its failed plan to acquire STPCV and is now too busy patting themselves on the back for doing such a " great" job rubber stamping the Blackstone deal to "waste time" on issues like this one and the numerous QOL issues that have only gotten worse in recent years
A deliberate theft
Another illegal practice.
Here too?
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/11/05/rabsky-abusing-preferential-rents-at-the-driggs-report/
Since the Stuy Town Sale at the same time there is a lot of press coverage on the "Emerging Adult" that NYC is building housing for by taking away what NYC calls "antiquated housing stock" from families and subdividing it into smaller units for multiple occupants of Emerging Adults. Emerging Adults is another way of saying at 21 years old they do not want to grow up and be adults.- they don't want to clean or cook so they want amenities for that in their living communities. In other words they do not want to take care of themselves, they want to keep being taken care of (thus the garbage left in our halls etc)
At 21 they want to drink, 24 hour happy hours, and be coddled. Its an evolution of entitlement in the worse direction. That is the type of people Stuy Town wants to attract and replace the generations of families of middle class working class strong values community.
A bunch of Peter Pans. There is a lot of money to make off off these Peter Pans so developers are kicking out the families old and new, to make way for Peter and Patsy Pan.
http://www.stage3properties.com/press/
http://www.ollie.co/#spaces
http://www.ollie.co/#services-1
http://www.ollie.co/#about
Filled out that questionnaire our new owners slipped under my door. There wasn't enough room on it to list everything that is wrong in this place. Boy are they in for a surprise for what is going on here. Please, everyone drop yours off at Resident Service.
If they wanted to turn this community and property into micro housing for "emerging adults" (which is a ridiculous - 18-21 is an emerging adult at and after 21 years old is a full fledged Adult who should know how to take care of yourself so you can then move onto taking care of others in the family you have at 30) - if they want to turn this into microunits community for the hugely profitable money making high churning market of "emerging adults" surely our electeds are educated enough to do it in a way that does not rob and rip off current tenants and equally despicable abuse senior citizens with evictions from their homes.
Senor citizens (baby boomers) are the largest portion of the American population. The government of incumbents abuse and discard them like they are in the way of politicians like to call "progressive".
That is not "progress" or "progressive"
That is oppressive and greedy.
NY government is all about Money.
Last thing - there is something sort of predatory about targeting these "emerging adults" creating environments of amenities, events, play areas, really all they are is commercialized residential zones (adult playgrounds) designed to target the young working professionals who are at a point in their lives where the largest portion of their income is disposable income - spent on themselves, clothes, alcohol, recreation. Men with instagrams boasting their sneaker collections and women with fashion blogs is all the 20-something rage. Targeting 20-30 years olds by advertisers has always been the money-making sweet spot, but using housing, and targeting them and permitting a stunting of their growth to adulthood by recreational amenity laden housing communities is surely to have a negative long term effect on their lives. I just don't believe we are meant to slow down in our ability to grow up. At 21 you can legally drink, you can drive (not at the same tome as drinking!), you should be able to cook and clean up after yourself.
It seems like targeting and alluring them with peter pan lifestyles from 21-30 will have a detrimental long term effect on their lives.
These chopped apartments are extremely lucrative for developers, and will churn at least every 5 - 8 years when they do start their families and micro unit living doesn't fit or allow stroller storage for babies.
Short term the developers will get rich and richer.
Plus, if it were a good business model, it would not require ripping off and robbing current tenants to push them out for the "emerging adults"
Bloomberg / Cuomo vision for NYC to be a big peter pan playground.
Thank you RealDeal for investigating this!
Has no eleceted demanded a freeze on MCI payments until Stuy Town sorts out this brazen overcharge or are they allowing it to go on?
Anyone who believes that our new owners will be more benevolent than our former masters is either a fool or sadly naïve. The bottom line is that this is a business and their goal is to maximize profits. Let the tenants be damned. Quality of life issues? Surely you jest.
If they could subdivide each and every unit into coffin-sized rooms and squeeze in ten people per apartment they would do it.
My question is this: Aren't MCI's based on total cost divided by number of rooms per building? If more rooms per building, shouldn't cost per room of MCI's go down?
Just askin'
In 2010 developers and landlords along with support from DOB and politicians stopped tenants from putting up unsafe and illegal walls while at the same time implemented a way for landlords to do the very same thing they stopped tenants from doing.
They may or may not have circumvented DOB housing codes and fire safety regulations; but they most certainly violated at lest several housing rules, regulations, laws on rent stabilized and 421a buildings.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/realestate/18cov.html?_r=0
My question is this: Aren't MCI's based on total cost divided by number of rooms per building? If more rooms per building, shouldn't cost per room of MCI's go down?
November 6, 2015 at 10:36 AM
DITTO
It takes three Albany government offices to do this city-wide DOB DHCR / TPU rip-off overcharging MCI calculations and all three have the power to cover it up too. If any one of the government offices is ethical it can stop the other two from the scam.
Housing Authority
Office of Attorney General
Office of the Governor
Then at the ground level the city council helps the DOB execute the plan locally by shutting tenants up. Tenant Lawyers pretending to "challenge" or "negotiate" the MCI charges make deals with DHCR to get their tenant clients to overpay.
This scandal has a lot of dirty players and a lot of hard-working NYC victims.
To the TA:
Press these guys as hard as you possibly can on all the B.S. that is going on here, especially these MCI'S! PLEASE!
If the TA board wanted this MCI room count issue raised there were many chances between 2007 and today, the most recent at the latest round of 2014 MCI talks the TA Board did with Andrew Macarthur right there at the table. The TA board chose to privately secretly calculate the amounts per apartment, with one amount for MR and another amount for RS. RS got doubly screwed, paying a larger portion AND on top of that larger portion, the flex chopped MR apartments have more people using the capital improvements and pay a lesser share. Even if the TA board treated all tenants equally in the calculations, with all carrying their fair share, RS tenants would have paid less than they are today. But on top of favoring the MR apartments having them pay less than their fair share, the TA Board didn't do due diligence on the room counts. RS tenants got slammed twice in 2014 MCI calculations. I don't feel good about having this addressed by the TA Board seeing how they have handled it in the past 8 years.
Yes. Room counts need to be recalculated. Here that TA?
12:52 - I completely agree with you. The MR apartments are paying less then RS apartments for MCI's, which was confirmed to me by my neighbor that lives in a non-flex MR 1br in ST. We have the exact same # of rooms, and I am paying quite a bit more per room.
It is obvious at this point that the TA does give a damn about RS or MR... only their RE pals. MR is getting shafted in the Blackstone deal and RS gets shafted with the MCI's. Everyone suffers with the QOL issues and the continued commercialization of the property.
Blackstone would benefit from paying everyone $500k to get out of here and then tear the place down and rebuild. $5.2B for the land + $5.2B for the buyouts + demo/rebuilding, and they would still make out like bandits!! I don't know many that would say no to $500k for something that they don't own...
They steal working class Pay
They steal working class Homes
And the incumbents are just fine with the way the system operates.
The Affordable Housing plan next 20 years:
http://gothamist.com/2015/11/05/affordable_housing_unions.php
"Contractors Getting Rich, Exploiting Workers Under De Blasio's Affordable Housing Plan
The city's system for building affordable housing is rife with labor abuses and corruption, and the mayor's goal of having developers build 80,000 more below-market units over the next 19 years runs the risk of perpetuating those problems and leaving behind housing that's out of reach for many current residents, according to a report [pdf] by a coalition of several dozen activist and union groups.
Workers with Real Affordability for All walked off the job at an affordable housing construction site at 27 Albany Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Wednesday afternoon, claiming wage theft and safety violations, and protesters with the group later picketed a gala of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing [NYSAFAH], a lobbying group whose members depend on city cash.
The coalition report singles out NYSAFAH as pushing to loosen oversight and enable worker exploitation, noting $17 million in stolen wages documented and alleged at affordable housing work sites since 2011, by developers and contractors working with the city's blessing and tax breaks. "
On a familiar PCVST issue:
"De Blasio's housing plan is a variation on former mayor Bloomberg's trademark tactic of rezoning neighborhoods to add density and offering tax breaks for developers to include some housing for people of certain incomes."
Tax breaks for billionaires and additional density with wall partitions for developers. Lower QOL for constituents. Unsafe conditions too.
Tenants, 20 year members of their communities, aren't letting the billionaire developers steal their homes and walk all over them.
East Harlem Tenants Group Rejects De Blasio Housing Plan, Offer Its Own
by David Howard King, Nov 06, 2015
http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/government/5972-east-harlem-tenants-group-rejects-de-blasio-housing-plan-offer-its-own
In NYC there is a growing surplus of luxury housing and a growing shortage of affordable housing moving deeper into the tale of two cities.
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/11/06/trailer-parks-are-banned-from-stuy-town-and-3-other-things-we-learned-from-reading-the-5-3b-deals-term-sheet/
"WHY, WHY, WHY have the TA and our Councilman Dan Garodnick not taken a serious look at what is going on with these "flex" apartments and the DOB filings of "no change" in use or occupancy???
A potential massive scandal may be looking us straight in the face, and the politicians and our TA do NOTHING! "
Because they did not do "nothing"
They did it.
Dan Garodnick worked closely with the DOB on construction in PCVST.
Dan's quote reads more like a lawyer for the landlord as usual.
Demanding an accurate independent room count on a monthly basis going back to 2007 is the only way to assess the amount Fortress Novogratz and Andrew MacArthur and the gang stole from tenants in this massive fraud and robbery.
"Following a request for comment yesterday from TRD, CompassRock removed the range of asking rents from the flex units on the floorplan comparison page of its website, replacing them with: “Call for pricing.”
The rents on the apartments are fraudulent!
"Aren't MCI's based on total cost divided by number of rooms per building? If more rooms per building, shouldn't cost per room of MCI's go down?""
Answer: I think it's based on number of rooms with windows. Therefore room count stays as is.
Maybe The Real Deal will discover Jacob Riis next!
>>Answer: I think it's based on number of rooms with windows. Therefore room count stays as is.<<
But wait? Isn't every room required to have a window, else it doesn't meet code regulations?
It does seem the smaller living room does not meet the fire safety code. No window, no egress. It is blocked from the windows by the bedroom doors and blocked from the front door by the dining room door. It is a room with no access to egress.
That was done by all the TA and Tim Collins. They screwed the RS tenants, mostly seniors, because as Tim Collins says below the MR are already paying higher rents. The goal of the TA board and Tim Collins was for all tenants to pay higher rents to increase the rent roll. Did the TA even have enough members to negotiate that horrible MCI deal? That negotiation is grossly unfair.
"Meanwhile, Tim Collins, the attorney for the ST-PCV Tenants Association addressed the crowd. First, he responded to some “grumbling” the deal has gotten since for most non-“Roberts” tenants, there’s only five percent removed from their monthly payments. Collins argued that as with any settlement, “you have to make deals. You have to trade something.” “Roberts” tenants wound up getting the higher reductions or full eliminations of the monthly payments because, said Collins, “they’re already paying very high rents.”
http://town-village.com/2014/05/16/mci-settlement-was-best-possible-deal-for-tenants-ta-attorney-says/
November 5, 2015 at 2:05 PM the TA board lawyer Tim Collins got us into this mess. His slamming that prop of a stack of papers on the podium at that meeting was for effect.
2:27 thanks for the article.
I guess the market rate apartments CAN be used for transients as only the affordable ones cannot.
I guess Ms Glen is doing fuzzy Goldman Sachs math if she really thinks only 300 apartments per year are lost - since 2010 in 5 years over 5000 apartments were lost. That is 1000 per year.
According to Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, Stuy Town has been losing about 300 affordable apartments per year to vacancy decontrol. If this trend continues, almost all current affordable units in Stuy Town will be either market-rate or “future affordable units” by 2035. By 2040, these will likely all be market-rate units."
4. About that $144 million city “loan” … says it all. That is the definition of corruption and inequality.
The one bedroom flex has a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, and 2 bedrooms. That is 5 rooms. The rooms are illegal. The MCI calculations are fraudulent. And the TA board negotiations with their lawyer Tim Collins should at the very least be redone so everyone is paying their fair share, equally. Charging the seniors more than the younger tenants is one of the most disgusting thing I have seen in my time here.
Tim Collins negotiating for RS tenants to pay a bigger share of MCI charges helped the landlord bring the RS apartments closer to vacancy decontrol to evict the RS tenants. That surely violates ethics if not laws.
The TA is unbelievable.
"because, said Collins, “they’re already paying very high rents.”
And the TA Tim Collins goal is to have everyone paying high rents?
"Collins argued that as with any settlement, “you have to make deals."
Cuomo just said the exact same thing about governing.
Tenants got screwed. The TA and Collins screwed us.
You can't have it both ways.
1. Charge a higher rent because there are more rooms and at the same time 2. declare there aren't more rooms to the housing authorities.
The seniors aren't on the Internet (for the most part). They just believe everything slimy Dan and the TA tells them.
Cuomo is giving away millions of taxpayer dollars to bribe companies into staying for 5 years, until his term is up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/nyregion/cuomo-struggles-to-maintain-momentum-in-upstate-employment.html
The RealDeal caught them hiding the rent amounts! Shady!
Just filled out the survey. With all respect to dog owners, I told them I didn't like the shit and piss all over the property. Honestly, I tried but it's just not me somehow. Couldn't believe they are actually entertaining the notion of a dog run. I also don't see how the dorms are going to stop. They still need to fill the overpriced apartments don't they?
The Tenant Association Board and their lawyers Tim Collins helped to fast track RS apartments towards market rate when they offered and agreed to charge RS tenants more than MR on the MCI charges.
No mistaking, they are 100% after our money and our homes and the land
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec - Ivanhoe Cambridge
THE CAISSE'S MANDATE IS:
To grow the funds of our
clients, depositors, while
contributing to Québec's
economic development.
http://cdpq.com/en
President of the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board
The future of more than 17 million graying Canucks rests with New York real estate. The fund, paid into by Canadian taxpayers, is entrusted with a whopping $140 billion in funds, including at least $8 billion for investment in real estate (in Canadian dollars, now worth slightly less than the greenback). It burst onto the scene in 2010, buying a 45 percent interest in SL Green's 1221 Sixth Avenue for $576 million. An Ontario pension fund has also invested in Related's Hudson Yards project.
observer.com/2011/05/the-power-100-2/#slide65
NY pols made a deal for Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec to support 17 million retiring Canadians by evicting American retirees, taking land and homes from NY citizens to increase profits of billionaire developers along the way.
This is economic flight at its worse. NYC loses, NY loses, America loses.
You lost me at MR paying less. You're a fool.
Why did CW Blackstone remove the prices after The Real Deal called for a quote on this article?
Why is there no press mention on the relationship between the central figures, Charles Spetka CW who worked at CW Financial Services from 2003 to 2013 (it was sold by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec pension fund to Fortress in 2010)
Mr Spetka who is now Managing Director of Fortress (since April 2013) took over Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village in 2010 after he walked around the Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village property with Rob Speyer concocting a scheme to bailout Tishman Speyer.
Mr Spetka went from working at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec pension fund during the sale of CW to Fortress, then worked at Fortress orchestrating the sale of Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town to Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec pension fund.
How is that not included in the press on the sale of American 35,000+ homes?
http://stuytownreport.blogspot.com/2012/08/cwcapitals-view.html
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/charles-spetka/59/b5/7b3
Definition of Room for Major Capital Improvement (MCI) Purposes: http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/PolicyStatements/orap932.pdf
Just who, exactly, does the TA represent? Do the students and the MR tenants in the flex apartments even know that the organization exists? Do they chip in their $35 per year to the TA? I have been a TA member for over 30 years, but now I am wondering why!
The definition of a room for MCI processing is as follows:
(1) A windowless kitchen containing at least 59 square feet.
(2) An enclosed area with window containing at least 60 square feet.
(3) An enclosed area without window containing at least 80 square feet.
(4) Bathrooms, walk-in closets, etc. are excluded.
The MCI section will use this room count definition to determine the allowable rent increase for both rent
controlled and rent stabilized apartments. An owner may submit a revised room count for any pending MCI application, which will be used as the basis for the MCI order. Any adverse determination stemming from a miscount in rooms which arises after an MCI order is issued becomes the responsibility of the owner.
Just the THREAT OF NON RENEWAL OF our Associated Market shows us already what a scumbag landlord Blackstone is going to be.
Buckle up, these assholes will be the worst nightmare we've had in 20 years. You'll be wishing For TSpeyer.
WHY, WHY, WHY have the TA and our Councilman Dan Garodnick not taken a serious look at what is going on with these "flex" apartments and the DOB filings of "no change" in use or occupancy???
For years they allow this to destroy us while they distract the press with headlines on AIRBNB lawsuits. This practice decimated 6000 affordable apartments and evicted the up to 20,000 occupant tenants and they allowed and wanted it to happen. That is why they did NOTHING.
Speyer never left. Cuomo Speyer Committee are doing this to PCVST and all of NYC.
"Just the THREAT OF NON RENEWAL OF our Associated Market shows us already what a scumbag landlord Blackstone is going to be."
The T&V update article was that CR offered to buy them out. The first article was again, CR (prior to the sale announcement). Blackstone has yet to comment. Can we try to keep the facts straight here?
http://town-village.com/?s=associated
Those writing the laws rules and regulations, politicians, housing authority (Mullrow Blackstone) are writing them so that landlords can increase number of rooms, increase their profit, increase number of occupants, increase rents, we have pro landlord politicians eg Schneiderman / Cuomo Albany appointed Blackstone to head the housing authority, They do not care about QOL and they despise rent stabilized tenants. They like money and those with money.
9:36 those rules are from 1993 (reissued in 1995)! Landlord tricks have changed since then and the mci room definition is stuck in 1995! From when Mario Cuomo was Governor.
What are the commissioners and deputy commissioners doing all day that they have not updated this? Especially when in the past years since the housing crash landlords have chopped up apartments on a huge scale.
1993! This is not incompetence, it is deliberate by the lawmakers to help the developers. REBNY gets laws written within a year on the State and the Federal level but tenants are losing house and home and quality of life because of things like this from 1993!
Please someone find an updated policy. We can't but surely it must exist or these incumbents are more screwed up then we thought.
Are the chopped rooms even allowable on the housing codes? Surely not the mini living room in the one bedroom flex.
http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/PolicyStatements/orap932.pdf
According to Bagli's book Rob Speyer and Charles Spetka came up with the way for Speyer's plan and vision and construction to move forward while Speyer appeared to have walked away.
At the same time Speyer gives $100 million to Cuomo Committee, Blackstone heads up housing, Fortress buys CW from Canadian pension fund.....and so on.
No way Speyer walked away.
WHY WHY WHY
The answer: ALBANY
Corrupt Albany destroyed the largest Residential Middle Class Housing in America.
"Buckle up, these assholes will be the worst nightmare we've had in 20 years. You'll be wishing For TSpeyer."
True. Very true. In addition the largest rental landlord in America, Blackstone ran Albany and the entire states Housing Authority setting favorable landlord policies and putting people in place to carry them out going forward.
Albany put the largest rental landlord in the country in charge of Housing. That is a clear demonstration Albany has hated and hates tenants, rent stabilization and NYC.
That is why it appears they did NOTHING. Because they were doing something all right, they were implementing the anti-tenant policies. Anyone who opposed them - stood up for their tenant's rights - got full on wrath from Albany, all the REBNY owned political offices in Albany.
Seems the MCI room definitions violate Housing Code. No way that flex one bedroom meets safety codes.
7 46 and HUH? Facts are they don't want the food store on 14th here.
Apparently that's ok with you, but 90% of us like and need that store.
Blackstone Ivanhoe Cambridge is the same as CW, same people just moving around to different companies to buy and sell PCVST while operating as both buyer and seller and developer. CW was spun off from Ivanhoe under the guise of a Fortress purchase which made them over $800 million in fees.
Everything CW did to PCVST since 2010 was for current owners Canadian pension fund and asset manager Ivanhoe / Blackstone in a twisted RE deal orchestrated by Speyer with Fortress as a middleman of sorts to give the illusion Rob Speyer walked away and Ivanhoe Cambridge / Blackstone are new to the property. To give the illusion their hands are clean when really they all ran the operation together.
So yes, Blackstone / Ivanhoe wanted the Associated lease threatened just as they wanted the bunker built.
RE above comment: The T&V update article was that CR offered to buy them out. The first article was again, CR (prior to the sale announcement). Blackstone has yet to comment. Can we try to keep the facts straight here?
http://town-village.com/?s=associated
November 7, 2015 at 7:46 PM
Tishman Speyer maneuvered to steal the Roberts ruling from us in a way to make sure they got their projected profits and carried out their plan for the property.
They stole every benefit of the favorable ruling from us!
They ran an aggressive hostile plan well financed by The Committee To Save New York and has support from City Council (who is pro NYU 2031 expansion plan), Blackstone run DHCR / TPU, REBNY DOB AG and Governor Offices to rip apart the community, chop up the apartments, tear tenants out of their homes, massacre the trees.
That is why they did NOTHING for us. Behind the scene, they have been maneuvering and working against us. It is getting more and more obvious!
Off the topic but does anyone know the law on inspections. They open our closets. Even police need a search warrant for that. Next city council person we vote for (not Dan) we are asking for better protection from these "inspections"
It is not a conspiracy theory. It is fact.
As they say time will tell and all evidence shows they wanted to use the AirBNB illegal hotel investigations to paint rent stabilized tenants as frauds to cover up the real frauds who are eliminating affordable housing, DOB, Developers, landlords, and the Politicians. Coupled with the total lack of dorm investigations along with the State Dorm authority and DHCR having us pay for the college's mandatory campus security installations is evidence of anti-rs-tenant.
The TA board member Margaret Salacan 2012 article in the NY Times publicized the TA board run illegal hotel investigation op they ran with neighbor tenants, the landlord, the AG office and the Mayors OSE targeting PCVST RS tenants here as if to try to justify doing NOTHING, to justify the loss of 6000 rs apartments by saying 20,000 tenants in 6000 apartments were frauds. There is no way 6000 apartments were second homes or run by tenants as hotels. That is as absurd as one earlier commentator suggesting we all have beach houses.
Yes indeed the TA Board and Dan did this and they don't even deny it, in fact they brag it in the press. They hurt a lot of innocent people who could not take the harassment of the false claim investigations.
Blackstone Ivanhoe largely invested in 2 things:
Rental properties
Hotels
Mr Gray is on the board of Hilton.
See where this is going? Short term stays. The law is deliberately written favorably for landlords to run short term hotel stays and dorms with its "30-day" language.
If the terms only limit Blackstone Ivanhoe Cambridge from running hotels in the 5000- affordable apartments that just gave them 6000 short-term hotel suites.
The law is deliberately written with 30-day language so that landlords can do short term rentals.
If I understand the terms, Blackstone Ivanhoe Cambridge can run short term hotels in 6000 apartment suites.
John Gray is on the board of Hilton.
Blackstone Ivanhoe largely invested in three things these recent years:
Rental properties
Hotels
Politicians
Trust me these ghouls who just bought this place will be worse than Tishman-Speyer, CW Cap, Compass Cock and all the other bloodsuckers who got a piece of the action.
Remember their bottom line is PROOFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT.
They would rent to the devil to get higher rent.
Let them rescind the bogus MCI's and I'll believe their propaganda.
Sort of makes me wish for the halcyon days of Jerry Speyer and boy Robbie Speyer...NOT.
And where is Danny Boy Garodnick in all of this? What a little phony.
SUNDAY NEWS
Why? The news is beginning to accidentally expose why politicians ignore the bigger problems (dorms, landlord chopping, etc) to get public focus on littler problems.
Pols misusing and manipulating the press for politician's own self-serving agendas to fool the public.
It begins, the unraveling of the false distractions of the PR Spin campaign of "politicians as heroes" so politicians get headlines to make themselves look like public heroes rather than the cause of the problems, and to get the public to look one way while in the other direction the politicians are doing very bad things.
Shame on the NYTimes for its part.
Following Cuomo's prison break interference, Cuomo Garodnick assault on the entire manicure industry was an HUGE exaggeration and a public distraction.
The public is wiser than the politicians give us credit and we are not keeping mum anymore.
http://pagesix.com/2015/11/08/new-york-times-pultizer-chances-get-nailed/
They are not heroes. They were never on the side of the tenant. That is why they did nothing.
They are not saving NYC. Everything Cuomo is doing is a typical legacy tactic, La Guardia, headlines on prison break photo ops, big headlines taking on an industry (albeit manicure pedicure industry and not the industries doing the most damage, Wall Street and Real Estate), saving Puerto Rico (while he takes money from the hedge funds destroying Puerto Rico in a qyid pro quo for favorable policies and laws).
Seeing through the political PR spin. Now that is transparency.
We can only hope the early onset legacy tactics, the road trips with buddies to Puerto Rico, the public embracing hugging Stringer, kissing Viverito, means Bharara is getting closer to saving us all from corrupt Albany.
REBNY owned Albany ruined this community and NYC and now they want us to believe they are coming in to "save us".
De Blasio is half correct. We don't need "saving" by Albany. We do need "saving" from Albany.
"Flex" means just about anything goes.
Some floor plans state "Area" not "Room."
- "Living Area" not "Living Room"
- "Dining Area" not "Dining Room"
- "Living/Dining Area" not "Living/Dining Room"
Not sure if those terms have strict "legal distinctions," but they provide sufficient "ambiguity" for subjective "misinterpretation" creating "reasonable doubt" for finding "no violation" committed.
What is a "Den?"
Is it a "Room?"
Can it be a "Sleeping Area" not counted as a "Bedroom?"
Or is it more akin to a "Foyer" or "Hall?"
Is a "Kitchen Area" a "Kitchen?"
Is it a "Room?"
Blackstone owns PCVST. Blackstone owns our homes. Blackstone controls our future. We had real opportunities to own PCVST, affordably own our homes and control our future. Those opportunities were squandered away. Instead, we are Blackstone's tenants. We've already been told CR will continue providing us with the outstanding service we are accustomed to and happy with.
Words mean whatever Blackstone wants them to mean.
I feel like I'm living in a fascist oligarchy. One landlord owns so much property? That is not American.
November 8, 2015 at 1:57 PM because the politicians who are supposed to write laws that define these words are deliberately making them ambiguous and writing big loopholes for billionaires to make more billions and kick us out of our homes.
It the language is ambiguous, is unchallenged, is not tightened up by the Garodnicks Cuomos Kavanaughs and Hoylmans, they are doing that on purpose. Make the rich richer and give them all of Manhattan as their wealthy playground with idle/lazy hotel style living.
The one bedroom flex has 5 rooms, all separated by floor to ceiling walls and doors. That makes it a room and not an area. Before the walls, it was a dining area and living room. Now they are rooms. Separate rooms.
"A potential massive scandal may be looking us straight in the face, and the politicians and our TA do NOTHING!"
These INCUMBENT DO NOTHINGS are putting Politics before People.
Do nothing for the People.
On the Federal level Schumer and Gillibrand do nothing to curb the monopolistic business practices of Albany and the one landlord owning so much housing and owning the housing commissions and the they write laws as Speyer REBNY wishes. On the State level Cuomo Schneiderman broker the business deals for REBNY and turn blind eyes deaf ears and stab with sharp swords of injustice any tenants who dare challenge the injustice. On the city level the Garodnick Hoylman Stringers do the dirty work to carry out Cuomo Schneiderman's business deals while they await their REBNY awarded musical chair promotions to each others higher offices.
Musical chairs is a fun game for children that has no place in offices that carry the weight of a citizen's quality of life. We have a right to a quality of life. That right is threatened by the business deals of Albany.
The best thing tenants can do is keep themselves as aware and informed as possible of EVERYTHING, the little details and the big picture and to not let Susan Steinberg, Brad Hohylman Brian Kavanaugh or Dan Garodnick control the information we get and not to take them at their word. The lack of transparency, absence of action's on behalf of tenants, abundance of actions on behalf of CW to help them develop the Oval and Office building, and the absence of big facts as the CW Fortress Ivanhoe relationship is revealing.
Please someone post information about 311.
When called regarding noise, do they respond asap? Do they visit the tenant who complained? What do they generally do with the complaint? Do they contact and / or approach noisemakers and then? Thank you.
STOP SLAMMING DOORS STOP SLAMMING DOORS. THE RUDENESS HERE IS NUTS - HOLD YOUR FRONT DOOR AND STOP SLAMMING IT PEOPLE.
All Associated is, is a large Bodega, with no space to move around. I will not miss it at all. They will not renew and it will be gone.
There were soo many people in Associated on Sunday, I thought I was going to strangle someone. The ice cream was almost in a liquid form I had to put it back. This store really blows. Look at all the trash it attracts. Oh that's right, we are talking about 14th street. That's why they are going to get rid of it.
"7 46 and HUH? Facts are they don't want the food store on 14th here.
Apparently that's ok with you, but 90% of us like and need that store."
Has reading comprehension gone out the window in the comment section of this blog? The point of my post was that CR, not Blackstone,(for now), was the one who refused to renew their lease in advance with Associated and actually offered to buy them out. Where did I say in my post that I did not like the Associated store? Nowhere, that's where. That’s why I included the T&V link. Which has both Associated stories. Which you obviously didn’t read. I know Norman; I dig the store, I'm a steady customer, and will sign the petition to keep Associated. Will you? Again, it was CR, not Blackstone. FACTS matter. THAT was the point of my post. Will Blackstone be as rotten as TS and CWC/CR? In all probability yes but the facts are right now that Blackstone is not on the record (again, for now) in any verifiable reporting for the fate of Associated.
>>All Associated is, is a large Bodega, with no space to move around. I will not miss it at all. They will not renew and it will be gone.<<
>>There were soo many people in Associated on Sunday, I thought I was going to strangle someone. The ice cream was almost in a liquid form I had to put it back. This store really blows. Look at all the trash it attracts. Oh that's right, we are talking about 14th street. That's why they are going to get rid of it.<<
Gee, the above two comments are so outrageous that it's easy to suspect a shill for CW or whomever wants Associated out of here. The reason that Associated is popular is that it offers the lowest prices on many items, with frequent sale items. I go to Associated regularly and have NEVER come across ice cream "almost in liquid form." So I'm one of the "trash" who goes there, as well as other trash from STPCV. Unless you exclusively meant that the "trash" who goes there are minorities. Which I kinda think you mean.
Not to mention ;;; the staff is wonderful to an old gal like me - i'm 78. They get fresh things from the back for me, the manager always says hello and gives me a raincheck.
7:46 maybe you should re read your comment and your comprehension. TYPE IN COMPLETE SENTENCES IF YOU WANT US TO KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN.
Ease up, STR.
Just to clarify, when I say "trash", I mean all the low lives below 14th street. Take a good look around, on the SE corner on 14th and 1st. Like what you see? And yes, the price on most items are good. Blackstone has no obligation to provide food for their tenants. Though it would be nice if the current establishment remained. Their only concern is to provide a maximum return for their investors. So, take a deep breath, continue to provide us with your good information, and have a good day!
:)
If that poster was referring to the customers as "trash" then he or she is a totally bigoted asshole. If he/she was referring to the mess outside the store at times, then simply remind Associated's managers that it is their job to hose the sidewalk.
I love Associated and because I am a senior citizen and can't schlep groceries too far, it is ideally situated for me. I see all ages and types of people in there all the time: rich, poor, young old, minority, not minority. It is a very well-patronized and useful store. I wish it were a bit bigger, but I have no complaints about the store or it's personnel whatsoever.
Although I do not visit Associated because I live in PCV on 23rd, I know that it is used by other members of my family that live in ST. It really is a lifeline for many of the tenants that are not able to make it to some of the other options that are nearby but not that close.
With that being said, I am not optimistic that Associated will have their lease renewed. If you look at the stores that line First Avenue, they all fit within the new modernized storefront look that the property is going for. I think that they are going to follow suit on 14th street and 20th street near Lenz's and the old cleaner.
Also, if there are roughly 5,000 RS apartments and 6,000 MR apartments, I think they are going to try and accomodate the needs of the 6,000 before the 5,000. I believe that this unfortunate trend going forward that we need to get used to.
Could be that CW's plans to drive out Associated is a manifestation of its loathing of the longtime tenants here. Many of the longtime tenants in the real RS apartments are elderly and/or frail, and taking away a useful and accessible grocery store that they rely on so much is something that CW would consider a positive.
"This store really blows. Look at all the trash it attracts."
Yes, like all the seniors who shop there. And all the people of color who work there. Go F yourself.
It does not matter if they call it a room or an area, a room for an MCI is defined by law. They alterations they are making are adding rooms to the building. Here is the definition:
Room: The definition of a room for MCI (Major Capital Improvement) purposes only is as follows:
A windowless kitchen containing at least 59 square feet or a kitchen of any size with a window. In either case, a kitchen must be enclosed by at least three sides, excluding the side(s) that contain(s) the entranceway.
An enclosed area with window containing at least 60 square feet.
An enclosed area without window containing at least 80 square feet.
Bathrooms, walk-in closets, porches, terraces and hallways are not rooms.
An "enclosed area" is an area bounded by ceiling-to-floor walls, one or more of which may contain an entranceway.
>>Just to clarify, when I say "trash", I mean all the low lives below 14th street<<
So I was correct when I ended my comment with:
"Unless you exclusively meant that the 'trash' who goes there are minorities. Which I kinda think you mean."
!!!
I think it's instructive to realize that there are people, like our "trash" commentator, who do believe that "certain people" are trash and don't belong in the vicinity of this community and using the surrounding stores. Upscale is what we want, with the rents to prove it!
"Just to clarify, when I say "trash", I mean all the low lives below 14th street"
Boy, you really don't get out often, do you? The EV below 14th street is now filled with NYU students, Bros and OMGs. All empathy free, self-absorbed, white children of privilege, parental funded jerks. Just like STPCV. Decade check, oh clueless racist one. And F you again.
"maybe you should re read your comment and your comprehension. TYPE IN COMPLETE SENTENCES IF YOU WANT US TO KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN."
Yes, I am going to take grammar advice from a poster who does not know about the proper use of upper case and lower case. And I don’t means “CAPS”*, who I surely miss from this blog.
*”PITBULLS ROAMING THE HALLS!”
I would much rather have the pit bulls roaming then some of the entitled selfish neighbors who think they own the place. No doubt they would have been unbearable had they actually been able to purchase, not that they are not unbearable already.
He She knows the proper use of upper and lower case, they are screaming at you IN ALL CAPS.
"Could be that CW's plans to drive out Associated is a manifestation of its loathing of the longtime tenants here. Many of the longtime tenants in the real RS apartments are elderly and/or frail, and taking away a useful and accessible grocery store that they rely on so much is something that CW would consider a positive."
In total agreement. And this is the REBNY’s plan (just go to Jeremiah’s Vanishing NY blog or FB page) as well for Manhattan and NYC.
I will not sign a petition to save Associated. It is a mediocre store. They never have stock. I had to wait weeks for diet peach Snapple which is the most popular flavor. What store does not carry lo-cal jello? When they have sales they put out unpopular flavors and types of products that they want to get rid of. The aisles are so full of boxes, that you can hardly get through. I have never found the managers to be pleasant. They have had a monopoly here for years and never made improvements. Would love to have a Fairway here. Gristedes, though a bit more expensive, has far more stock and selection.
8:42 PM, I shop regularly at Associated, and what you write about is foreign to me. Sure, when it's time to stock certain items, there will be a few boxes, at most, in the aisle, which one still can get through with ease. The sales are not dictated by "what they want to get rid" of, please. I suspect that you don't go to Associated much at all and am suspicious of your motives in trying to disparage the store. Your comments fit in perfectly with an entity who would want to remove the store and replace it with a higher-priced and higher-rent paying store. Gee, I wonder who would want that???
Definite motives to disparage. The employees of Associated are some of the nicest in the city. Helpful, polite and necessary.
November 9, 2015 at 4:04 PM
Thanks STR for re-clarifying original comment(s). It was NEVER intended to offend anyone who lives here. And to the person(s) who don't realize the true realities of what goes on around here, you know what, go F YOURSELF. That was uncalled for.
And, November 9, 2015 at 8:42 PM, I could not agree with you more. I am getting up there in age also, and it is rather difficult to navigate through those small isles with my cane. God help us all. I'm going to church now. Oh, yes, I almost forgot, it is located on 14th street.
How ridiculous is it to have to be asked to sign a petition. It is a waste of time. Blackstone is not going to renew their lease. They have other plans, and will probably rent to a higher upscale store, or one that will be able to pay their current asking price.
They even tried to buy them out. What does that say? Get used to the fact that they will no longer be there. Good things always seem to come to an end in this place. It will be next to impossible to buy items for very good prices. And most of the cashiers are pleasant people, I must say.
I like the Associated. The managers always order things and brands that I ask for. The produce employees are the most polite people. They are having more healthier products and brands and beginning to have more environmentally friendly products and better brands (slowly but surely).
>>How ridiculous is it to have to be asked to sign a petition. It is a waste of time. Blackstone is not going to renew their lease. They have other plans, and will probably rent to a higher upscale store, or one that will be able to pay their current asking price.<<
You may be perfectly correct that Blackstone will do this, but if we don't speak up, we will be culpable, too.
STR 10:16 AM
Agree. You have nothing to lose by speaking up. If you don't, you will never know.
This IS our community.
"Thanks STR for re-clarifying original comment(s). It was NEVER intended to offend anyone who lives here. And to the person(s) who don't realize the true realities of what goes on around here, you know what, go F YOURSELF. That was uncalled for."
STR-"I think it's instructive to realize that there are people, like our "trash" commentator, who do believe that "certain people" are trash and don't belong in the vicinity of this community and using the surrounding stores. Upscale is what we want, with the rents to prove it!"
8.40 AM, you are thanking the STR for confirming that you are racist? You are so dense you can't detect the irony in his post? "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging". If your post is real, go F yourself again. And if you're just trolling, go F yourself as well.
">>How ridiculous is it to have to be asked to sign a petition. It is a waste of time. Blackstone is not going to renew their lease. They have other plans, and will probably rent to a higher upscale store, or one that will be able to pay their current asking price.<<
Yes, just do nothing, never put your real name out there, be docile, and have no balls. Sounds like a plan to me.
In answer to the ST reporter who said that I did not shop at Associated regularly, I actually do shop there often I never heard of a store that didn't have sugar free jello. I often have to go to other stores to get items that they do not have. To each his own. There is nothing wrong with wanting a nice large grocery such as Fairway in this modern age. Also your comments about "my suspicious motives" are absurd. Just because someone criticizes a store does not indicate "suspicious motives."
Surely you joke. It won't be a Fairway, it won't be food at all. I know this as FACT.
I love Associated. Our new Llord is evil. They will not renew the lease of Associated and far worse. They are asking us what we dislike for a very opportunity of driving us all out. How do you not see this?
"Surely you joke. It won't be a Fairway, it won't be food at all. I know this as FACT."
Most likley a big chain drug store.
IKEA?
WalMart?
KMart?
Home Depot?
To the poor babies who can't get their Snapple Diet Peach drink and their lo-cal jello at Associated: Let's just burn the store down. I hope that when you were stamping your little feet, Mommy was close by to shove a pacifier in your whiney fat gob.
You people simply don't get it. Blackstone has it's plan in place and is going to do whatever it wants to do regardless of all your complaining and petition signing. So all your hoping and wishing is simply a waste of time. Sad to say, the Met Life days are over and never coming back. Associated is probably locked into a low rent,
and the new owners will be able to get a lot more. All good things must come to an end, and nothing lasts forever. So move on everyone.
November 10, 2015 at 4:22 PM
That space could only provide an office for those companies. Funny.
November 11, 2015 at 8:08 AM
Exactly. The petition is for show. Marsh did one a while back. We really need a new TA that fights for tenants, speaks out for tenants, not does internet petitions to a company like Blackstone. If Blackstone keeps Associagted it is because they already decided to do that and the petition is to make Steinberg look good. Just like the Dan switcheroo with Andrew MacArthur and the photo rendering of the bunker when Dan asked STR to pull the post down so Dan could write a letter to MaCarthur asking for a photo rendering of the bunker - to fake out tenants and make Dan look good.
The fate of Associated has been decided. Probably Blackstone didn't want to be exposed as the bad guy and get as Kathy Wilde says - "bad publicity" when they do away with Associated, the only food store. Thats why the aggressive recent pushes, to get Associated to abandon the lease and to get as many more RS tenants out with the last round of golub notices before Blackstone Ivanhoe Cambridge makes the announcement purchase.
Associated's fate has been determined, no matter the petition or not.
Pathetic and embarrassing that Albany and NEW YORK has so many corrupt politicians.
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