From the May issue: In the last few years, the part of Northern Manhattan that’s received the most press ink has, of course, been Harlem. But there’s an entire residential market farther north in Washington Heights and Inwood that often gets overlooked by the New York real estate community.

This month, The Real Deal talked to brokers and market analysts who follow what’s going on in the two adjacent neighborhoods. What we found is that the area has seen a recent surge in sales activity, some of which is a result of the major drop it saw after the crash, which lasted longer than it did in some other Manhattan neighborhoods. In addition, prices there are also starting to creep up because inventory has started to tighten. [more]

Developer Quadriad Realty Partners’ plan to build four tall apartment towers at Broadway and 190th Street in Washington Heights is proving unpopular with residents, the New York Times reported. Some are saying that the proposed towers, with more than 800 apartments in total, would block sunlight and bring too many new residents to the neighborhood.

“It looks like a Stalinist-era project — gigantic towers sitting atop a fairly sedate neighborhood,” said one nearby resident, Vadim Moldovan, of the proposed towers ranging from 23 to 39 stories. “It would dwarf the landscape and blot out the sun.”

In September, the local community board rejected a proposal for the four towers, but encouraged Quadriad to return with revised design for smaller buildings. [more]

Great Neck-based landlord Bahram Hakakian, who was on a “slumlord” watch list and who has racked up more than $512,000 in emergency repair charges from the city, sold a dozen troubled multi-family properties to Long Island City-based Alma Realty for $22.5 million. At the same time, Hakakian refinanced five other Manhattan apartment buildings in recent weeks.

In fact, as of this week, there were 3,020 housing code violations on the 334 units in the formerly complete package of 17 buildings, or about nine violations per unit, according to an analysis of city records by The Real Deal. [more]

New York City’s affordable housing crisis can be linked to a pandemic of predatory equity investors in the region, according to a recent report (see full report after the jump) compiled by the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, a non-profit advocacy organization. These investors have snatched up around 100,000 units of affordable or rent-regulated housing in the past four years, a figure that represents around 10 percent of the affordable or rent-regulated housing in the city, bringing with them pressure to turn over profits on the buildings — sometimes by as much as a 14 to 20 percent annual rate of return, the report says. Additionally, the report found that many of these equity loans earn just 55 cents on each dollar of debt, a level which is considered predatory, Crain’s reported. Much like Tishman Speyer, the developer at Stuyvesant Town that recently lost a landmark deregulation case, these private investors often try illegal deregulation tactics, and sometimes even intimidation, to drive out tenants. “Neighborhoods around New York City have seen a dramatic rise in the harassment of tenants as landlords tried to illegally remove low- and moderate-income families so they could raise the rent,” the report says. “This increase in harassment stemmed in large part from the rise of a new type of buyer of New York City real estate.” The report named 11 neighborhoods in the city, including the Lower East Side, North-Central Bronx and Washington Heights, as particular breeding grounds for predatory equity deals on affordable housing. TRD [more]

It may have Manhattan’s highest natural point (265 feet, in Bennett Park), but Washington Heights did not see the steep peaks in activity and prices that so many Manhattan neighborhoods experienced in the past few years.

As a result, the neighborhood — which stretches from the Hudson to the East rivers and from 155th to Dyckman streets — has avoided the complete and utter cratering that many other Manhattan neighborhoods have seen in the last couple months.

This month, as part of a monthly feature looking at what kinds of deals are closing in different neighborhoods, The Real Deal found that Washington Heights saw a 76 percent drop in closings in the past year. While that may seem steep, pricing held up far better than other, more upscale areas.
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Left to right: Bushwick, Vito Lopez, East Harlem

The state Affordable
Housing Corp. and State of New York Mortgage Agency has approved $35.8
million in financing to build and renovate 669 housing units across the
state. “The grants announced today are an important investment in
communities throughout New York. From Brooklyn to Rochester,
renovations and construction of new units will assist thousands of New
Yorkers in need of affordable housing,” said Assemblyman Vito Lopez, chairman of the Assembly Housing Committee. Projects in New York City to get
funding include a 71-unit co-op at East 156th Street at Brook Avenue in
the Bronx, which will get $1.78 million; $3.02 million will go towards
acquiring and rehabilitating six buildings in Bushwick, Flatbush,
Harlem and Washington Heights; $3.2 million will help acquire and rehab
five buildings in Highbridge, Morris Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant,
Brownsville and East Harlem; and $2.15 million will go to help build 66
condo units along Ely and Bartow Avenues in the Baychester section of
the Bronx. TRD [more]

Suburban shoppers with immigrant parents or grandparents are boosting the city’s economy by visiting ethnic retail centers at a growing rate, according to a report published by the Center for an Urban Future, a think tank. Downtown Flushing, Washington Heights, Richmond Hill, Brighton Beach, Midwood and Astoria are all popular ethnic centers. While the number of businesses citywide increased 9.6 percent from 1994 to 2004, the report highlighted several areas that grew faster: Flushing, up 54.6 percent; Sunset Park, up 47.3 percent; Sheepshead Bay-Brighton Beach, up 33.7 percent; and Washington Heights, up 17.8 percent. [more]

For years now, certain New York neighborhoods have been labeled as up-and-coming, cheaper yet still hip alternatives to pricier addresses. This hype, however, about Red Hook, Washington Heights, Astoria and other neighborhoods may have begun to affect their affordability, which is a main reason why they were dubbed up-and-coming in the first place. more [New York]