Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Blackstone's New Stuy Town - Peter Cooper Promo Video
My initial reaction is disappointment. One of the first things mentioned is that ST/PCV is "pet friendly." If you thought there was going to be a lessening of the dog population in the future, you were wrong. This is a major selling point being used.
"Organized community amenities" is next on the list of major selling points. Blackstone has already shown the value it places in amenities when it introduced itself to us in their literature. (This stress on amenities clearly outed Blackstone as being unaware of the value of this complex placed by most tenants.)
A "fun environment" is also mentioned. When I think of Stuy Town, that's the first thing that comes to mind: FUN!
While most of the rooms shown have some carpeting, there appears to be none at the 51 second mark. I'm always bewildered as to how ST/PCV can show in its promotions either a lack of carpeting or minimal carpeting that does not meet the lease requirements of a tenant.
"A seasonal ice-rink" is part of this promo, of course. So even if the rink loses money, which seems to be the case, it's a selling point and will stay.
There's more being promoted, including the Oval Cafe where you can buy lukewarm coffee and tea and Oval Study where you have your own "corner office" (!) and "library resources" (!). Sorry, but having the daily NY Times and shelves filled with random uncatalogued books that were bought at 10 cents per book, or donated, do not constitute legitimate library resources.
So this is just the same cliched bs that we hear from every landlord. Sad.
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50 comments:
What a whole bunch of B.S. Really!
If this place was so great, they wouldn't have to advertise it. They never had to advertise it when we had a tree park, beautifully landscaped grounds and a ten-year waiting list. Of course, we didn't have exorbitant rents then, but there wasn't the demand on the fragile infrastructure and resources and the property turned a profit. These extortionist, avarice-fueled bloodsuckers aren't so bright after all, are they? Rob Speyer would have been lucky to get a job stocking shelves in Walmart if it hadn't been for his father's influence! Same goes for most of them!
We have gone from a ten year wait list, desired peace and quiet home life in an exclusive Park & Middle Class safe community to come home to
/ to now a fun area to work or play 24/7 that needs promotional gimmick commercials to sell it.
We lost all that was luxury and became as commercial as Disney.
That video is another example of the Blackstone PR machine. As I anticipated when they bought the complex, they intend to keep the same student and transient oriented
policies. Let us see if they keep those horrible oval concerts. It is too bad that so many tenants fell for their PR. And where is their response to those surveys that they have been promising us. I think that the list of rules in the last rent envelope
is their response---it's that those dorms are here to stay but we addressed it. Live with it.
It would be telling to see the accompanying marketing plan. To know who this focus group tested promo is aimed at.
Tenant surveys? Those are landlord tools to see who the troublemakers are....
Who had other expectations from the Stuyvesant Town deal? It had no benefits for tenants. Politicians were saving face making sure it did not disappear on their watch while they made sure Speyer/REBNY plans could continue and also cover his debt.
There is no benefit to constituents. Just more of the same. More broken campaign promises. Last year Albany Silver Skelos. This year City Hall?
In the news:
"The de Blasio culture of corruption
What does Richard Emery, the hand-picked head of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s cop-watchdog Civilian Complaint Review Board, have in common with Sheldon Silver, the on-his-way-to-prison former speaker of the New York Assembly?
Rainmaking.
Silver filched millions, using his office to feloniously steer potential asbestos litigants to the trial lawyers at Weitz & Luxenberg PC. That’s one reason why he’s going to jail."
http://nypost.com/2016/02/16/the-de-blasio-culture-of-corruption/
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ccrb-chief-law-firm-represents-plaintiff-ccrb-case-article-1.2530423
"Potemkin village"
A pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to mask or divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition.
I ain't buying carpets if no one above is. Why the f should I.
Never thought for one moment there would be any kind of rollback of pet policy.
This video makes clear where Blackstone is headed. Stuyvesant Town is destined to become Yuppie-ville. Blackstone and Tishman-Speyer did their market research. The yuppies want dogs. Yuppies can afford higher rents. End of story.
But the open questions remain and should be of concern to everyone. Will Blackstone continue to allow dogs to defecate on the walkways and pee-stain flagstones and granite sidings? What about dog walkers coming in from the outside? What about leashes that extend beyond 6 feet? What about people who don't clean up after their dogs? What do they expect PS to do about the problems? What will be the means of enforcement? What is the downside for PS if found not meeting what mgt expects?
Five weeks have passed since the first meetings with Mr. Hayduk and no word so far. Not hearing anything right away is not a good sign. We know that from recent experience.
It is not really yuppie-ville. It is NYU dorm-ville and hotel accomodations. Well-to-do yuppies who can afford these apartments would rather live in other neighborhoods with true luxury housing. The only people who will be moving into these apartments are students who split the apartment up and transients. I am not surprised. Always thought that the Blackstone deal was a crock. The dog population
seems to be increasing. I do notice that many of the students have dogs.
Wake up and smell the coffee fools!
Blackstone is a business!
They are here to MAKE MONEY.
If they could open up Oval Brothel, call it an "amenity", and get away with it they would. Hmmm...not such a bad idea...jus' kiddin'...sure beats the ear-splitting horrible "concerts" in the summer.
They would pack people in the subdivided apartments like sardines if they could.
OK, remember this from Economics 101 kiddies:
LANDLORDS ARE IN BUSINESS TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS, LIMIT COSTS, AND ABOVE ALL, WORSHIP AT THE GRAIL OF MAMON.
Having said all that, as a long standing rent stabilized tenant whose daughter has rights of succession I say this to our new overseers:
A ROYAL FU*K YOU.
I ain't goin' anywhere...hahaha
These are not landmark record breaking real estate purchases as the PR spins. It is a small group of big corporations moving money around between each other incestuously to drive up prices and therefore their own value.
The biggest residential real estate deal in the country and the biggest office deal in the country were both between Canadian Ivanhoe Cambridge and Blackstone
http://therealdeal.com/2015/01/16/ivanhoe-cambridge-closes-on-2-2b-acquisition-of-1095-sixth/
http://therealdeal.com/2016/02/17/korean-firms-invest-in-mezzanine-debt-on-manhattan-office-towers/
The big banks are moving money around from countries wanting to "invest" in US real estate for the same few big asset managers and mega-conglomerates. It is the same few corporations that come up in these real estate deals againa nd again, and the same few countries top the list at JLL. JLL has some rather interesting client relationships with infamous banks.
MetLife treated this community of people and property like its crown jewel
To Blackstone we, and the Oval are nothing more than an Asset to generate profits.
MetLife was successful for over 50 years and Middle Class were successful raising generations here under MetLife with never a promotional video ad .
It is embarrassing from a business perspective, what Stuyvesant Town has become since 2007
If NYC government was of the people, by the people, for the people, De Blasio would have gone all out as far as pulling an eminent domain if need be and gone co op like Penn South
(like they went eminent domain in Brooklyn but instead of doing it for the people they did it against the people while for the developers and foreign investors and political interests with Barclay Center.
Stuyvesant Town should and could have been the successful east side version of middle class housing as is the successful Penn South
Instead De Blasio and Cuomo serve corporations and not people and went for the east side version of Hudson Yards - to eliminate Middle Class housing and install corporate commercial anchors and luxury towers.
Pioneering what they call neighborhoods of the future a la Paul Weiss Rifkind et al
Where are the new announcements that were promised when the new management took over, as promised? I haven't heard anything! I think it's going to be the S.O.S., ALL OVER AGAIN! No need for carpets by the way, unless a neighbor complains about you. This place remains a JOKE!!
It is revealing that Town & Village has not run the market rate illegal hotel news. Are they on the side of those making false accusations against the rent stabilized tenants and waiting for that headline to PR the cause against rent stabilized tenants because at the top they are after all owned by Real Estate interests?
The golub meeting and the Town & Viilage coverage of that meeting was troubling too.
The lawsuit against all involved in the harassing and unaddressed Golub claims could encompass a lot of parties who have been involved even in the periphery. That Summer meeting of rent stabilized tenants told to prove themselves by giving all they had to the landlord so the landlord can use that against the tenants in building their cases against tenants was appalling.
Dan Garodnick is a lawyer.
What kind of lawyer advises their clients to give all their proof of evidence against a false claim to an adversary?
I think Mr Garodnick would agree a lawyer truly protecting their client would never tell the client to prove your innocence to an adversary making a false accusation by giving them everything you have to defend yourself.
Someone(s) making a false claim is out to irreparably hurt you. An adversary making a false claim will stop at nothing to support their false claim and they will use all you have, look for holes the courts might be persuaded to exploit to evict you on behalf of NY real estate interests who let's face it, are the ones financing the politicians who pick the judges.
A lawyer should advise the landlord adversary to prove their false accusation and not with circumstantial evidence even if they have falsely created a mountain of circumstantial evidence to support their false claim in the golub. If the landlord has the audacity to make the false golub claim they too will "make" the false evidence to support it.
That meeting made it clear to me who is on what side.
That meeting should have been about tallying the number of rent stabilized tenants in the room, tallying the number of market rate tenants, analyzing the targeting by the landlord and demanding the landlord prove their claim. Not the other way around with the tenant proving their innocence.
That meeting should have been used to harness the power of the hundreds attending in a class action.
That meeting was prolandlord.
That meeting was Un-american. Innocent until proven guilty. Unless in Stuyvesant Town you receive a golub notice then you are automatically guilty and better rove your innocence and lose your home so a higher number of market rate apartments can be achieved.
The Tenant Association has achieved disastrous results for the community and the open spaces. Their resumes show they are capable of achieving good results so the results achieved to date must be deliberate. If the last Golub meeting is any indication of the advice they give and positions they take, then the TA needs to be 100% overhauled. When the TA tells us to do something, we almost always know it is better to do the opposite of what they advise.
Id rather have a tree
then any oval amenity
Anonymous, 5:01, I adore your little poem.
And thanks, STR, for fighting the good fight.
STR, and your service, not to be minimized in a world of minimization.
Oh, STR, I didn't have my reading glasses on when I first glanced at this post and, for a few second, I thought it said it was Blackstone"s PORNO video. Well, that was a few eager seconds of my life that I won't get back.
12:52, you are either terribly misinformed or terribly naive.
Not saying it's right, but it is what it is... Innocent until proven guilty is NOT how the Golub process works. Unfortunately, the burden of proof is on the tenant. The landlord can refuse to renew a rent-regulated lease if they assert (sometimes based on erroneous or completely unfounded information - that was certainly the MO during the TS reign of terror) that the apartment is not the legal occupant's primary residence. The tenant is then required to furnish proof to the contrary.
Again, it SHOULD be the other way around, and we should be pressing our lawmakers on that. But to say that tenants receiving a Golub should simply stamp their feet and cry, "No!!! YOU have prove I don't live here" will only wind up getting those tenants evicted.
No need for rugs even after complaints. They approved us and we have less than 20 percent Don't bother buying rugs.
This place is an absolute joke. Why have these carpet rules in the first place? Why?
Just a mention, dorm room residents are not permitted Christmas Trees or pets!
Not so Atomic Man and certainly not how the REBNY or a billionaire would respond if the tables were turned. The people have to stop being sheep while the billionaires are being wolves.
Publicizing his afternoon speech on Twitter, Mr. Bharara chose a quote from Edward R. Murrow: “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/nyregion/preet-bharara-us-attorney-making-a-rare-visit-to-albany-receives-a-glowing-reception.html
I would venture to guess this video was shot well before the agreed upon purchase. We can all agree that Compass Rock was spending money like a Drunken sailor. No harm no foul, other than making this place look cheesy. Welcome to Boca Baby!
Bragging about not having adequate rug coverage just makes you a bad neighbor. So what goes around comes around
"Just a mention, dorm room residents are not permitted Christmas Trees or pets!"
This only for the official NYU dorms (not sure re the Parsons/New School ones)that are leased directly by NYU for its graduate school programs. Again, how many times must this be posted, the super vast majority of "dorm" style apartments here (at least over a thousand, maybe in the thousands by now) are leased directly by the students (undergraduate and graduate) and the just post college crowd themselves , with their parents guaranteeing the lease. Whether they are students only, combo apartments with students and the recently graduated or just filled with recently graduated millennials, the QOL/infrastructure impact is the same. Transient, dorm style apartments, packed with 3,4 and 5 roommates, that turnover frequently, roommates coming and going and a total disregard for the QOL/lease regulations. These lease regulations, never mind NYC and NYS laws regarding unrelated adults and illegal hotels, do not seem to be enforced by Blackstone as per some recent posts at this blog. We will all soon see whether the “honeymoon” period with Rick Hayduk/Blackstone is over, whether he is legit re the statements he made re the QOL issues here or is he simply just another REBNY bullshitter.
Atomic Man is correct. A landlord's false accusations supported by flimsy, poorly documented, sometimes erroneous, sometimes fraudulent evidence raises a presumption that must be successfully rebutted by legitimate tenants improperly forced to prove residency in their homes. Landlord sleaze hellbent on eviction will discover "new" evidence supporting more false accusations to repeatedly drag targeted RS residents into court.
Legislation protecting RS tenants against landlord harassment is kept weak by corrupt politicians owned by REBNY showering them with $$$$$ 24/7/365 ordering them to maintain status quo.
BTW, our PCVST TA is soliciting candidates for elections to represent the best interests of their PCVST neighbors/constituents.
Is the PCVST TA still a value-sharing business partner of deep-pocketed REBNY predator Brookfield investing $25 million supporting and cheerleading Speyer's take-no-prisoners eviction war against PCVST residents?
Do PCVST board members still share values with their deep-pocketed partner Brookfield paying politicians millions of dollars 24/7/365 to maintain RS on a death watch?
Were Brookfield's deep pockets empty when it came time to contribute to Garodnick-TA's phony, now-infamously botched "tenant led purchase" condo scam?
Did Brookfield only share values with PCVST tenants scammed into buying PCVST for Brookfield without Brookfield ever having to reach into its deep pockets that were apparently empty?
Will 25,000 middle class PCVST tenants, 100% RS holding $2.7 Billion Fannie Mae purchase funding, be provided an opportunity to review the 60+ PCVST ownership proposals Garodnick-Moelis rejected before brainwashing current PCVST board members into entering into a formal business partnership with major REBNY predator Brookfield wherein Garodnick-TA promised to divert our $2.7 Billion Fannie Mae purchase funding into Brookfield's deep, empty pockets in exchange for apparently nothing?
Since current TA board members refuse to answer those questions, will candidates campaigning to replace them pledge to answer them?
What about candidates campaigning to replace Garodnick? Will they pledge to find out how 25,000 middle class PCVST tenants, 100% RS holding $2.7 Billion Fannie Mae purchase funding, lost EVERYTHING? Or, will they join the dishonest politician chorus claiming PCVST tenants losing EVERYTHING was somehow a historic, middle class victory while holding out their hands offering to sell themselves and betray constituents in exchange for REBNY $$$$$ ?
"Just a mention, dorm room residents are not permitted Christmas Trees or pets!"
According to Blackstone there are only 100 dorms.
Was walking on First Avenue and Twentieth Street today and came across more probable evidence of illegal hotels. A young woman with a suitcase and poor English was asking a policeman where Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper was. She did not have an exact address. Wonder if they can just go to a central location and rent apartment/rooms.
Blackstone is certainly looking the other way.
1:08
I am pretty much in agreement with you, but the one question I have us whether or not the potential TA members that are running would have access to the information needed to answer your questions. If I were to run, I doubt the TA would disclose that to me until I was veted into their blood cult.
It is not a brag. It is a fact he truth. There is no carpet rule. We were also. Heckled and had very little barely any. Donalda H will just check off as done fine and cover d. Cwc and cr adore and her practice of nothingness.
"Will 25,000 middle class PCVST tenants"
Excuse me, where are you getting this number and demo from? Wikipedia says "and over 25,000 residents". The reference they use for that number (reference #2) is the official PCVST webpage. CWC/CR slipped out not too long ago that the resident count here was now 30,000. It is to the advantage for whoever who now owns this dorm/motel dump to understate the resident population for marketing purpose. The STR has reported how crowded PCVST seems to be these days. That is due to the impact of the rapid dormification that has substantially increased the adult population here. If you are going to make a statement which does have some valid points, one must always make sure the numbers/demo (the vast majority of dorm style apartments residents here are not true middle class, they are parental funded transients) that you are stating are correct.
Read the election rules which were revised several years ago by the TA Board with the assistance of Paul Weiss. The rules make it virtually impossible for anyone other than an incumbent member of the Board or a friend of the Board to run for a Board seat. Plus part of the rules changes included the adoption of a staggered Board, meaning that only a few members of the Board are up for election in a particular year.
"What about candidates campaigning to replace Garodnick?"
This potential candidate, Diane Grayson, looks interesting. We will see.
"After reading about the aforementioned may-runs in T&V, Grayson said she wants to run because she didn’t feel that any candidate (or current elected official) so far has offered solutions to what she believes is the biggest problem facing the community — the lack of affordable housing.
“I feel that’s something that’s not been addressed,” she said. “I like that (other potential candidates) are alluding to it, but we need real right now solutions.”
Grayson noted that in ST/PCV, with the future availability of affordable units likely to be determined by a lottery, it doesn’t necessarily do anything to help existing tenants.
“A lot of my friends who are third generation can’t afford to stay,” said Grayson. “My best friend just moved to Portland, Oregon. The market rate tenants are completely not being represented and rent stabilized people are saying they also can’t afford to live here.”
http://town-village.com/2016/02/19/pcv-woman-eyes-council-seat/
“The Streetcar Hustle”.
Same MO as the proposed ferry stop on 20th Street and the East River Cove Park. H/T to the Jeremiah Vanishing FB page for the link.
"The group’s study was conducted by HR&A investors, a real estate consultancy with deep ties to the de Blasio administration: First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris, New York City Housing Authority chair Shola Olatoye, and City Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod are all former high-ranking employees. The “Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector” are, for the most part, friends of higher waterfront property values, seeking public insurance for their private investments in the form of infrastructure development. The line they are proposing is a redistribution of public wealth toward a few of the city’s most powerful actors."
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/02/de-blasio-streetcar-brooklyn-queens-gentrification-new-york-city-inequality/
More of the same from these two
http://nypost.com/2016/02/21/developer-with-ties-to-de-blasio-scores-job-despite-being-outbid/
Another corporate party event space waste of taxpayer dollars that does not benefit taxpayers
and keeping this monstrosity looking clean with all its crevices is impossible. The Port Authority is taking New Yorkers transportation needs and turning them into corporate junkfests spaces with nothing serving the needs of millions of commuters because the little people workers are in the way of the luxury parties.
The Port Authority has piss poor priorities and can't manage a simple business budget. New York New Jersey Port Authority is the worse run organization in the Country and as some posted in the past on STR blog, painfully corrupted.
Everything the City and State spends taxpayers dollars on is for corporations who in return buy the politicians higher offices and appointments. This is a blatant example of no benefits to the constituents.
http://nypost.com/2016/02/21/world-trade-centers-4-billion-transit-hub-is-a-lemon/
One of the candidates (who will not get my vote) is campaigning on a promise that the market rate new stabilizers (MRNS) will get into the lottery to push out their affordable rent stabilized (ARS) neighbors which will help the landlord Blackstone achieve the De Blasio promise of increasing the remaining ARS apartments to $3500. A brazen anti-tenant, anti-affordable housing candidate.
February 20, 2016 at 1:08 PM Yes the courts are corrupt and in New York, with its failing grades in Judicial Ethics, probably 90% of New York Judges are corrupt. Probably more.
But that does not mean tenants should be fearful of fighting in the courts and let landlords harass us. The politicians and REBNY want to kick us out illegally, don't go down without a helluva fight telling them to go F themselves!!
We need to start supporting different kinds of candidates for city council. Maybe someone young with a law degree seems right at first, but here's what happens. Maybe they start out idealistic and motivated. But after one term, they soon find out that money talks and in order to get reelected, they have to start courting the moneyed interests in their districts. Take our district...#4. It holds many middle class New Yorkers but also includes some of the richest people in the entire country. So on any given quality of life issue and given a fairly ill-informed, apathetic public, which way is a councilman most tempted to vote? Other factors: you haven't practiced law in a while. What will you do for a job if voted out of office? You're making less that 150K per year while your former law colleagues are making 500K/yr at least, buying condos, buying places in the Hamptons...what aren't you tempted to do to catch up?
Here's my proposition. Don't vote for anyone who's young. Vote for someone who is retired, on social security, someone so close to the end, he or she is more interested in community service and couldn't care less about getting reelected or the money. Only then might we start getting some decent politicians.
@ February 21, 2016 at 9:22 AM
"One of the candidates (who will not get my vote) is campaigning on a promise that the market rate new stabilizers (MRNS) will get into the lottery to push out their affordable rent stabilized (ARS) neighbors which will help the landlord Blackstone achieve the De Blasio promise of increasing the remaining ARS apartments to $3500. A brazen anti-tenant, anti-affordable housing candidate."
---
Paranoia? Hysteria? Both?
Agree corrupt politicians ensure a corrupt lottery.
Please ID that anti-tenant candidate making those campaign promises so we can join you not voting for him/her for being a corrupt REBNY slave, but honest and truthful about it.
Did you post earlier comments claiming to possess incriminating recordings of New Stabilizers plotting your conspiracy?
"One of the candidates (who will not get my vote) is campaigning on a promise that the market rate new stabilizers (MRNS) will get into the lottery to push out their affordable rent stabilized (ARS) neighbors which will help the landlord Blackstone achieve the De Blasio promise of increasing the remaining ARS apartments to $3500. A brazen anti-tenant, anti-affordable housing candidate."
Which one is that? I perused T&V's profiles on people who are running for various offices that are becoming available because of term limits, but I could find any mention of what you described. Thanks.
Someone above posted the link to the candidate that some are talking about.
This is it, yes? She says she wants the market rate tenants to be in the lottery for the rent stabilized apartments. Is that what you are looking for 3:48?
http://town-village.com/2016/02/19/pcv-woman-eyes-council-seat/
February 21, 2016 at 2:56 PM you sound like you are going a little looney nuts. I think the above answers your rant.
"She says she wants the market rate tenants to be in the lottery for the rent stabilized apartments. Is that what you are looking for 3:48?"
-----
Thanks for the tip Paranoia Hysteria. Her statement is conclusive proof she is a brazen anti-tenant, anti-affordable housing candidate enlisted in your massive conspiracy of New Stabilizers, Blackstone and De Blasio harassing longer term RS out of their homes.
Try lining your walls with aluminum foil to deter New Stabilizer aliens spying on you.
February 22, 2016 at 2:56 PM who says Blackstone and De Blasio are harassing longer term RS out of their homes and new stabilizers are spying on their neighbors? except you. You are the only one saying that and that ain't a right minded thing to throw around without proof. No one else has said that.
February 22, 2016 at 2:56 PM You are starting rumors about neighbors spying on each other and that ain't cool.
"One of the candidates (who will not get my vote) is campaigning on a promise that the market rate new stabilizers (MRNS) will get into the lottery to push out their affordable rent stabilized (ARS) neighbors which will help the landlord Blackstone achieve the De Blasio promise of increasing the remaining ARS apartments to $3500. A brazen anti-tenant, anti-affordable housing candidate."
You said it yourself Paranoia Hysteria. STR is littered with your exaggerated, fact free conspiracy insanity. All written in the same bombastic style, same distorted imagination, same unhinged mindset. You post them, then subsequently agree with yourself and applaud yourself. It's transparent, sad and detracts from these forums.
If the aluminum foil isn't working, try coating your walls with peanut butter.
Today I saw a large(20) group of students touring ST with s leader carrying a layout plan of the community. Obviously looking at their new digs. Disgusting, just like they were touring a campus. Blackstone is continuing this dorm dump policy on a major
basis. What phonies they are, acted like they were really going to address QOL issues.
They are touring a campus. It has been a campus here for years. You know this. WE ALL KNOW THIS. WHY SO SURPRISED. IT IS A BONAFIDE CAMPUS. YOU (and I) are not wanted here. der.
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