Susan Pollock, SVP of CPC, and Domino Sugar Factory sign

CPC Resources, the development team looking to transform the one-time Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg into a residential complex, is fighting back against a secret report compiled by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which claims that CPC stands to make more than $400 million from the project, according to the Brooklyn Paper. The report, which was compiled in 2006 but only became public this week, said that CPC could make as much as $447 million from the 2,200-unit building, despite the developer’s promise to keep 660 of those units permanently affordable. [more]

The Dillon, SDS Procida Development Group’s 83-unit condo at 425 West 53rd Street, between Ninth and 10th avenues, officially opens for sales this week, with occupancy slated for next month. Meanwhile, the city celebrated hitting the 100,000 milestone for affordable housing units created or preserved since 2003, and Meltzer/Mandl was tapped to design Westrock Development’s planned affordable housing rental development at 920 Westchester Avenue in the Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood. SDS Procida Development Group has also sold out and closed all apartments in its be@william condominium at 90 William Street in the Financial District. Click here for more. TRD [more]

Buried in the city’s housing maintenance code is a little-known law that has the potential to affect tens of thousands of New Yorkers: it’s illegal here for more than three unrelated people to live together in an apartment or house. But if a quick perusal of Craigslist roommate postings is any indication, the law, originally intended to encourage the conversion of boarding house brownstones back into family homes, is unlikely to have an affect at all. Just three citations related to the roommates law have been issued since July, according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and enforcement in a city where sky-high rents force residents to live in rooms described as “unique dungeons” for $525 a month seems not only difficult but also insensitive. The Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey found that close to 15,000 city homes had three or more unrelated roommates, a number that experts say is probably under-reported. Any amendment to the current roommates law would need to come by the City Council. [NYT]

The Bloomberg administration is planning to use the sluggish residential development market to its advantage by offering incentives to developers who build affordable housing, the mayor said in his weekly radio address on 1010 WINS. “In today’s economy, incentives that our City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development can offer in exchange for affordability commitments… look a lot more attractive,” he explained. His administration is aiming to build or preserve half a million affordable housing units by 2014, and he said it is on track to do that. On the distressed housing front, the city is converting stalled condo projects into even more affordable housing, and has slotted $750 million for low-cost refinancing and repair loans that will encourage multi-family building owners in danger of default to prevent apartments from deteriorating. To pay for all of this by the 2014 goal, the city’s Housing Development Corporation will provide $1 billion in funds, none of which will come from taxpayers, Bloomberg said. In addition, the New York City Housing Authority is on its way to securing $100 million per year in Federal funds to upgrade and maintain 18,000 public housing units, thanks to the recently-passed bill in the State Legislature, supporting the bid, he added. TRD

While Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village owners Tishman Speyer and BlackRock Realty said they’d transfer control of the residential complex to creditors two weeks ago, that promise hasn’t come to fruition, due in part to $90 million in unpaid state and city taxes, according to Bloomberg News. Rafael Cestero, commissioner of New York City’s agency on Housing Preservation and Development, said that either Tishman and BlackRock or special servicer CWCapital has to pay the taxes — but, so far, neither is jumping at the chance. State law mandates that the owner of the distressed property has to submit unpaid taxes upon transfer to a special servicer, otherwise the servicer is stuck with the bill. “The reality is [Tishman and BlackRock] can’t just turn back the keys.” Cestero said. “CW doesn’t want to pay the [back taxes] so they’re going to have to negotiate this.”

A new city program will put $750 million in the hands of housing agencies to lend to owners who will buy up deteriorating moderate-rent apartment buildings in financial distress and restore them to better conditions for tenants. There are 267 city buildings with 3,564 apartments that are both in poor condition and are close to or already in foreclosure, according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which is heading up the program, announced first in Mayor Bloomberg’s State of the City address Wednesday. Many such properties were purchased by private equity firms during the housing boom. The funding will be provided over five years; the first $150 million will provide capital for experienced owners with good track records to acquire buildings quickly. One such owner will be Mo Vaughn, the former New York Mets player who bought 14 Bronx buildings in a foreclosure auction last month. The remaining $600 million will be provided through New York City Housing Development Corporation bonds and city capital, which will be used to buy and repair the buildings. The city will first focus on the buildings in the worst shape, pushing out current owners with threats of code violations and tax liens. [NYT]

A partial collapse at a rundown Clinton Hill brownstone has forced residents in two neighboring buildings to evacuate their homes.

The brownstone at 196 Lefferts Place, a 19th-century three-story building between Classon and Franklin avenues, was vacant when part of its façade collapsed Tuesday evening, said Ryan Fitzgibbon, a spokesperson for the Department of Buildings. There were no reported injuries after the incident, which was first reported by Brownstoner.

DOB officials inspected the site and ordered the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to demolish the building.

Residents of the adjacent two-family home at 194 Lefferts Place and three-family home at 198 Lefferts Place were evacuated “as a precautionary measure,” Fitzgibbon said, and will be able to return once demolition is complete. The American Red Cross was leading the relocation efforts Tuesday evening.

HPD began demolishing what remained of the façade last night since it was in danger of collapsing, said Eric Bederman, a spokesperson for the agency. An asbestos abatement is planned for the next two days, after which the rest of the building will be demolished.
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Omni New York, a real estate development company headed by former New York Mets first baseman Maurice “Mo” Vaughn, is the successful bidder of 14 troubled South Bronx buildings owned by Ocelot Capital Group, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, other politicians as well as Fannie Mae announced today. The mortgage debt on the dilapidated Ocelot buildings, which totals $23.8 million, was also purchased for a reduced price by Omni from Fannie Mae and Deutsche Bank through the bidding process. Omni plans to invest up to $1 million in emergency repairs and hopes to become the long-term owner of each property. “This is a big step in the right direction that puts these properties on the path to finding responsible ownership. Omni brings a track record of success and has worked with the city on some of our most challenging and distressed properties,” said Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Rafael Cestero. TRD

Approximately 20,000 affordable homes have been lost in New York City from 2002 to 2008, due to rent deregulations and an increase of market-rate homes coming on the market, according to a recent NYU study. However, Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Rafael Cestero appeared on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC to share his take on the report’s findings. “While there was a loss of affordable homes from 2002 to 2005, the report also shows a significant net increase in affordable housing from 2005 to 2008,” Cestero said. “Former HPD Secretary Shaun Donovan laid a terrific foundation of 94,000 affordable units during that time.” He also attributed the net increase to Mayor Bloomberg’s aggressive 10-year affordable housing plan, which kicked off in 2005. “The losses of units incurred during 2002 to 2005 were completely arrested by 2008,” he said. Cestero said he plans to continue adding affordable units to the market and meet the HPD’s goal of adding 165,000 affordable units by the end of 2014. “While the inclusionary program, which requires private developers to build developments with 20 percent affordable units, will generate of thousands of units, the biggest piece of the plan will be investments in existing affordable housing buildings and insuring people are able to stay there for the long term,” Cestero said.

The recent ruling in favor of tenants at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village initially put the city’s landlords on the defensive, but now property owners are asking if the city might owe them money because of the decision. Frank Ricci, director of governmental affairs at the landlord trade group Rent Stabilization Association, said he has fielded calls from “dozens” of landlords asking if the city might owe them for overpayment in taxes. And in recent weeks the law firm Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman raised more questions in a bulletin, including whether the city must pay landlords for lost tax abatements. Adding to the potential chaos, Stephen Meister, a partner who specializes in real estate law at the firm Meister Seelig & Fein, said he had spoken with building owners who might want to leave the city-run J-51 tax abatement program altogether. [more]