City may extend deadline for 421-a tax breaks

The city may extend the deadline for developers of multi-family
buildings aiming to qualify for the coveted 421-a property tax break in
an attempt to jumpstart stalled construction projects across the five
boroughs, according to the New York Times. The city upped its
qualification requirements for the tax break several years ago on the
heels of criticism that it had been giving away too much potential
revenue through the incentive, but many developers had rushed to file
their building permits before those more stringent requirements took
effect in June 2008. Those who qualified for the 421-a under the old rules had to complete their projects within three years. According to the Real Estate Board of New York, there were 17,000
building permits filed that month, a 300 percent spike from the year
prior, and for many of those builders, that three-year mark is now fast approaching. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development is hoping that a three-year deadline extension would incentivize developers of stalled sites to start construction anew. Rafael Cestero, commissioner of HPD, said the agency is already granting many extensions on an individual basis, anyway. [NYT]