CWCapital/CompassRock Post Thanksgiving Day Special--With Respect to Tenants

So, you've had a wonderful Thanksgiving and went to bed late, full of good cheer, turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and drink. What better way to greet the next day than being woken up by workers drilling and pounding in your building or nearby!  And if you think you'll get any peace the rest of the day--you are wrong! Remarkably, work on the new Public Safety center continues on the day after Thanksgiving. Perhaps work will continue on Saturday, too. Black Friday, indeed, for those who live within earshot.

Happy Thanksgiving, 2013!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM STUY TOWN AND PETER COOPER VILLAGE SQUIRRELS:

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM CWCAPITAL, COMPASSROCK AND FAZIO TRAINA LANDSCAPE SPECIALISTS:

And HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM STR:

Coming Soon! Celebrations around the Stuy Town Christmas Tree in which children will make a wish to Santa for a better looking Christmas Tree:

Breaking News: No MCI Rent Bill Increases this December

Both the TA and CWCapital (PCVST Living) have released brief notifications stating that residents will not see the scheduled MCI increases in their December rent bills, increases which are postponed until January. Both parties say talks are ongoing between them, with CWCapital adding that the DHCR is also involved.

The Destruction of the Oval

There is a "golden age" to everything, it seems. Regarding the Oval, it appears clear that the apex of its charm and beauty has now passed, never to return. When Stuyvesant Town was built, the Oval was bare necessities, with a promise of more luxuriant things to come, as trees and bushes would grow to fill out the plain landscape. In the decades that followed, the Oval still maintained its relative plainness, but was, at the very least, a handsome, peaceful sanctuary from the rest of Manhattan and the city's "rat-race" vibe. In prepping the complex for sale, Met Life made significant upgrades, and turned the Oval into the best it has ever looked. Garden areas at the crescents and near the Oval lawn flourished, and an impressive fountain replaced the Plain Jane that existed there before. Under the reign of Tishman-Speyer, the gardening went through several transitions, some of them positive.  More dramatically, however, four amenity buildings were carved out of Oval buildings.

Concern was raised that the amenity spaces were introducing elements into the Oval that should not be there and that, for the first time, a financial resource was being created in this green sanctuary that went against the "free for all residents" tradition of Stuy Town.  Yet, even with these four amenity spaces, the Oval still managed to retain a good measure of its sanctuary feel, in significant part because the lush landscaping hid most of these spaces from many points of the Oval.

Tishman-Speyer then introduced a new feature to the Oval: the Sunday greenmarket, which necessitated a loss of a chunk of the southern end of the Oval lawn, made permanent later by a surface of gravel. Food trucks were also introduced to the Oval, sometimes on a daily basis, effectively marring the sanctuary ideal of the Oval. Residents (who cared) made noise about both the food trucks and the greenmarket, and for a while, it seemed as if the pushback to the commercialization of the Oval was working, with the city taking a serious look at Stuy Town's zoning. Then came capitulation, with our councilman Dan Garodnick, who initially made a strong case against the commercialization of Stuyvesant Town, declaring that he was satisfied with city's requirement that commercial spaces were properly zoned if meant exclusively "for residents and their guests." Garodnick considered the matter resolved.

This capitulation meant that the new landlord, CWCapital, was now free to introduce more commercial projects into the Oval (wink-wink "for residents and their guests"), and we got the Ice Rink, a commercial venture that took away a free playground space with artificial turf for many months out of a year.

Recently, CWCapital has gone after the Oval with a vengeance. It removed and ripped out all the lush garden areas of the Oval and replaced them with low plantings placed far apart. Whatever "sanctuary" aspect of the Oval remained was now seriously debilitated and on life support.  One couldn't feel separate in the Oval space at any point. Everything, from our project-like buildings to the Oval amenity/retail spaces, was in clear view.

And now CWCapital is taking an aggressive step in the further destruction of the Oval. It is creating, remarkably, a new building, or building extension, at the Oval for the Public Safety department that will, I believe, destroy whatever sanctuary feeling the Oval is still holding onto. The Oval will not be an oasis in Manhattan anymore, but a part of no-space-unused, commercialized, well-trafficked Manhattan. And what will house the amenity space currently being used by Public Safety? If what I heard from a couple of CWCapital bigwigs who were standing near it gets actualized--a retail space, though it may be coated with a different, less abrasive tag.  Hmm, maybe we can see a small convenience store, meant for residents and their guests? Or a mini-beer hall that would be popular with our student population? Or, why not a 7-11? They're popping up all over Manhattan, so why not here?

It's obvious that getting the most money out of the Oval is the goal. And has been the goal for a while.

One can say, with considerable despair and regret, that once the changes to the Oval will be finished some time next year, we can declare the Oval dead or at least skeleton of what it once was, a mocking display of the avarice and insensitivity of the landlords who were supposed to be its stewards, but who turned out to be its ravagers and destroyers.

Message to Management

 Dear CWCapital/CompassRock:

Please try to clean the walkway around the Oval.  At this moment there are at least three separate clumps (that's clumps, not stains or residue) of dog crap along the western side of the Oval.  I didn't dare take a walk on the eastern side, so there may be more.

Does anyone in your employment check the state of the walkway?

Also bicycles are currently whizzing by around the Oval.  Is there anyone available to make sure these cyclists get off their bicycles?

Hello?  Management? Is anyone there?

CWCapital Intends to Stay On for at Least 2 More Years

At least that's what an article in Town & Village reveals inadvertently. The article describes CWCapital's plan of redoing all the hallways in PCVST.  New carpeting, baseboards, and a paint job for "an updated and clean look." This work is expected to be finished throughout the complex in two years.

Dear Lord.....

Another Threat

Over a week old and not concerning Stuy Town, but concerning our councilman, Dan Garodnick and sleazy real estate....  Makes for incredible reading and an understanding of the links between real estate and politicians.

Some people in the real-estate industry have a message for Manhattan councilman Dan Garodnick, in whose hands the future growth of Midtown East resides: Slowing things down will not be good for your citywide aspirations. 

Much more here:

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/10/8535298/real-estate-industry-links-midtown-east-garodnicks-political-future

CWCapital's "MCI Help Center"

From the TA:

Owner’s “MCI Help Center” Will Help Owner More than Tenants

CWCapital has set up an “MCI Help Center” in Peter Cooper Village. Make no mistake: this is not a tenant-friendly helping hand. The thrust of this help center is to rope in the confused, the scared, and those who may think CW’s offer is generous or worthy of serious consideration.

According to the Tenants Association’s attorney, there are powerful reasons why you should not sign CW’s offer:

• The proposed agreement is illusory, deceptive and unenforceable.

• The language of the form encourages acceptance while the Owner holds a trump card of unilateral termination.

• The agreement appears to be an attempt to intimidate those tenants who support the TA’s challenge to the MCI’s, by penalizing or diminishing their rights, in direct violation of §230 of the Real Property Law.

Furthermore:

• There is no explanation that the retroactive portion of the MCI orders is subject to the 6% annual cap, making it appear that the 35% will be an immediate windfall. (A PCV tenant has done the arithmetic on the MCI for the Security System and Video Command Center and finds that signing on to the management offer would save $1.60 a month.)

• The Owner’s offer to withdraw its appeal of $15 million of MCI costs that the DHCR did not approve is almost meaningless—it consists of sales tax, which can never be included, and other costs DHCR almost never approves.

• Roberts tenants were never served with MCI orders at all. Therefore, there is no present obligation on the part of the Roberts tenants to pay any increase, and no reason to sign.

• Tenants give up the right to file a PAR to challenge the validity and accuracy of the MCI costs.

• Tenants give up the right to challenge the Rent Orders in an Article 78 proceeding.

We need volunteers in front of 360 First Avenue starting this Monday to hand out a copy of Tim Collins’s letter and Public Membership Pledges to passersby or those who want to access the MCI Help Center at these hours:

Monday, November 11: 5 p.m.–8 p.m.Tuesday, November 12: 8:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m.Wednesday, November 13: 11 a.m.–2 p.m.Thursday, November 14: 5 p.m.–8 p.m.Friday, November 15: 8:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m.