Tenant group opposes Stuy Town unit conversion plan

The Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association is railing against a plan to convert 115 units at the housing complex.

Blackstone Group wants to make changes to the layout of the vacant apartments, Real Estate Weekly reported. The ST-PCV Tenants Association detailed the planned conversion in an email sent to neighbors. The email also outlines the reasons it believes Blackstone should ditch the proposal.

The landlord wants to add another bedroom to some vacant one-bedroom apartments, according to the email. It also wants to combine one- and two-bedroom units next to each other to form three-bedrooms, and create three-bedrooms with one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms and studios.

The association claims the plan “degrades the time-tested, well-designed layout” and “will likely result in an increase in the existing transient rent-a-room lifestyle.” It also said it will “continue to destabilize our once-cohesive community.”

However, a spokesperson for Stuy Town said the project is a response to renters demand for open kitchens and affordability. Blackstone and Ivanhoe Cambridge bought Stuy Town in 2015. As part of a the $5.3 billion deal for the 80-acre complex, the firms agreed to keep 5,000 of its apartments affordable for at least 20 years. [REW] — Miriam Hall