Stuyvesand Town and City Council member Daniel Garodnick

The tenant association for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village voted yesterday to partner with Brookfield Asset Management to explore buying the properties, the New York Times reported. The association is aiming to convert the complexes, with 11,232 apartments in total, into an affordable condominium or cooperative in a plan that could see residents choose to buy their apartments or remain as rent-regulated tenants.

The tenants are hoping that the lenders who control the property, who are represented by CW Capital, will sell it to them rather than someone who may wish to displace the properties’ long-term residents, the Times said. [more]

Stuyvesand Town and City Council member Daniel GarodnickThe New York state appeals court ruled today that tenants in the blockbuster lawsuit at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village will be able to pursue millions in rent overcharges, tossing a move to dismiss the case by MetLife, the original landlord of the Manhattan complex (note: correction appended).

In 2007, Stuy Town residents, led by tenant Amy Roberts, filed a class action suit against Tishman and the previous landlord, Metropolitan Life, alleging they illegally deregulated apartments while receiving J-51 tax benefits, which are designed to help landlords renovate apartment buildings in return for keeping rents affordable.

The decision means that thousands of current and former tenants will be able to pursue more than $215 million in excess rent that was paid to previous landlord Tishman Speyer or MetLife, which had sold the complex to Tishman.
[more]

From the May issue: As New York’s rental market begins to recover, landlords and tenants are once again at loggerheads about a controversial method being used to weed out some applicants: blacklists.

Some say tenants are being unfairly blacklisted from renting apartments if they’ve ever tangled with a landlord in court. Whether a tenant has been involved in an eviction proceeding, or even if he has simply withheld rent from a landlord for not making a repair, or just dared to challenge his landlord in court over something as basic as lack of services, he could have a hard time when he looks for a new home.

The issue has recently come up at the Tapestry, a new LEED-certified rental complex from developer Jonathan Rose Cos.  [more]

From left: City Council member Daniel Garodnick, Rose Associates’ Adam Rose and trees in Stuyvesant Town

Special servicer CWCaptial Asset Management is set to remove hundreds of trees from the sprawling Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village residential complex, according to the Wall Street Journal, after residents complained the greenery posed a safety threat. The trees, which former owner Tishman Speyer began planting at the 11,200-unit residential community in 2006, allowed “for somebody of ill will to hide and potentially perform a criminal act,” said City Council member Daniel Garodnick at the time. But while residents butted heads with Tishman Speyer over the arboreal plantings, Adam Rose, co-president of Stuy Town property manager Rose Associates, said he agrees with the tenants. [more]

Richard Lefrak’s organization is a possible contender for Stuy Town

Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty were pilloried for aggressively pushing out tenants and running afoul of the city’s J-51 tax abatement rules. But some of the firms that are being mentioned as possible replacements as owners or managers at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village — such as developers LeFrak Organization and Rose Associates, and real estate firm Stonehenge Partners — come with their own skeletons in the closet. The New York City real estate world is bracing for a struggle among titans for management or ownership of the 11,200-unit housing complex on Manhattan’s East Side following the announcement  last month that the owners would cede control. Potential parties must negotiate with special servicer CWCapital Asset Management, the majority of which is owned by Canadian institutional fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. The special servicer represents the interests of the bondholders of the securitized loans on Stuyvesant Town. Other firms being bandied about as possible investors or investors are WL Ross & Co., Centerbridge Partners, Related Companies, WinnCompanies and Prudential Douglas Elliman, according to media reports. The thorny city tax abatement program known as J-51 that contributed to the forfeiture of Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village has dogged one of the leading contenders for the site, LeFrak. [more]

A showing of over 100 Upper East Side residents yesterday and speeches
made by politicians were a testament to the enormous community
opposition the Related Companies faces over its residential tower
proposal at 205 East 92nd Street. Yesterday’s meeting resulted
in Community Board 8′s vote to reject the developer’s application for a
421-a tax abatement, which would give it a tax break on the project’s
market-rate condominium component, in return for inclusion of
affordable rental units. Residents hope Related will abandon its plans if it cannot get the tax exemption. [more]