Rent subsidies to 9,000 households with formerly homeless families and individuals will cease to be issued this month, according to the state Supreme Court, Appellate Division, which permitted the city’s decision to stop the payments in September.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the administration has begun to let participants know that they should not expect payments this month, a move that has prompted a backlash from advocates of the program, called Advantage. [more]
From left: Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and map rendering of Manhattan Greenway plan
The East River waterfront is set to be transformed into continuous parkland and recreational space along the East Side that will rival the Hudson waterfront, the New York Times reported, following a number of important announcements by the Bloomberg administration, including the conversion of Pier 42 into open space and the opening of Pier 15. But the vital turning point may come in the form of the United Nations East River esplanade deal. Following the announcement of Bloomberg’s 20-year plan for the waterfront, unveiled in March, the most significant development may be an as-yet unlinked deal with the U.N., the Times said. [more]
At a press conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the number of universities vying to develop a new graduate engineering school campus somewhere in the five boroughs — with the help of $100 million capital contribution from the city for construction grants and land — has been narrowed to four, DNAinfo reported.
Bloomberg then backtracked at a press conference, where he was announcing the opening of a playground, today in Queens. “I don’t know that the four is the right number, incidentally,” he said, according to DNAinfo.
[more]
Seeking the generally higher yields real estate investment trusts produce, investors have poured an additional $3.7 billion into U.S. REIT funds this year, Bloomberg News reported, bringing the total amount of assets in those funds — including exchange-traded funds — to $96 billion, shattering the previous record of $87 billion set in February 2007.
“REITs are attracting attention because of their income, the dividend yield, and the fact that REITs do own hard assets, which offer inflation protection,” said Philip Martin, REIT strategist at research firm Morningstar. The average annualized dividend growth rate of REITs over the last two decades is 5.75 percent, according to the firm, about twice the rate of inflation. [more]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has signed a contract to purchase a $20 million Hamptons estate overlooking Peconic Bay, sources told the Post. Those sources also said that there were pages upon pages worth of confidentiality agreements involved in the deal, but apparently that didn’t help to quiet the rumor mill, as it seems the cat’s out of the bag on Bloomie’s future home at 119 Whites Lane. The historic, 35-acre Shinnecock Hills property, called Ballyshear, borders the posh National Golf Links of America golf course and has the touches of several noted architects. The 22,000-square-foot Georgian mansion has 11 bedrooms and eight-and-a-half bathrooms. It was built in 1910 by F. Burrall Hoffman and is surrounded by English gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Rose Standish Nichols, according to the listing by Paul Brennan and Ronald White of Prudential Douglas Elliman, which was last priced at $22.5 million. [more]
The six-acre neighborhood retail and industrial redevelopment of Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Admiral Row site has finally reached the beginning of the public review process, decades after it was first proposed, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Steel and Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation President Andrew Kimball announced today.
If approved by Community Board 2, the City Planning Commission and New York City Council, the site will be transferred from the federal government to the city-owned Brooklyn Navy Yard and become home to a 74,000-square-foot supermarket, 79,000 square feet of retail space and 127,000 square feet of industrial space. It would create 500 permanent retail and industrial jobs as well as hundreds of temporary construction positions.
–Katherine Clarke [more]
Building 268, a former metal foundry building at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, has been gutted as part of the process of becoming a world-class research and development facility by Duggal Visual Solutions. The $7 million project is slated to be completed by the end of 2011, according to Brownstoner.
Duggal founder Baldev Duggal plans to develop the property into the world’s first environment-focused resource center, revolutionizing home boiler systems and removing street lights from the city’s electric grid. [more]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg furthered his environmental agenda yesterday, by announcing stricter regulations on heating oils in New York City buildings. The New York Times reported that the new law requires buildings that burn No. 6 heating oil, the cheapest and most pollutant oil typically pumped by the oldest boilers, to switch to No. 4 heating oil by 2015. The cost of such a switch is about $10,000 per building. Further, boilers must burn even less noxious oils, such as low-sulfer No. 2 oil, natural gas, or their equivalents — a much more costly transformation — by the year 2030. Comments
Wells Fargo has inked a deal to lease 275,000 square feet at 150 East 42nd Street in a 16-year deal that nearly fills the 42-story, Hiro Real Estate-owned tower, according to the Observer. The bank had previously been close to signing a 300,000-square-foot lease at 120 Park Avenue, the former Philip Morris headquarters, when Bloomberg LP swooped in to take 400,000 square feet at the building and Wells Fargo had to go back to square one. The space it has ultimately settled on, which is between Lexington and
Third avenues in the coveted Grand Central submarket, is comprised of 13
floors at the building, where rents range from $55 to $75 per square
foot. [more]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has named Mathew Wambua, the commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, replacing Rafael Cestero effective April 4. As previously reported by The Real Deal, Cestero is vacating his role after five years of public service to pursue a position with L + M Development Partners. “We’re two-thirds of the way through completing the most ambitious affordable housing plan underway anywhere in the nation, and Mat’s leadership, intelligence and financial acumen will help us meet our goals,” Bloomberg said in a statement. TRD [more]
