Stuy Town tenants look to city pension fund for help buying complex

Tenants from foreclosed Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village met with city Comptroller John Liu this week to discuss using part of the city’s $37.5 billion retirement fund to buy their beleaguered 110-building apartment complex. Liu agreed to consider the plan, which would utilize funds from the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, otherwise known as “NYCERS,” according to City Council member Dan Garodnick, a longtime Stuyvesant Town resident. In February, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said tenants looking to buy the property were on their own and shouldn’t count on the city for financial help. “That’s not what we’re here to do,” he said at the time. In addition to NYCERS, the tenants group has reached out to between 40 and 50 potential backers in drawing up plans to buy the 80-acre property, Garodnick said. One such backer is the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which lost $500 million as an investor in the Tishman Speyer-led deal to buy Stuyvesant Town for $5.4 billion in 2006. CalPers hasn’t responded yet to the tenants’ request. [Post]