Nonprofits in the Federal Archive Building saved from rent hike

Several months after Rockrose Development told its nonprofit tenants in the Federal Archive Building, at 666 Greenwich Street between Christopher and Barrow streets, that their rents would increase by as much as 500 percent, city and state agencies said the developer couldn’t legally raise the rents without the state’s consent. The state owns the property, and entered into a 99-year lease with Rockrose in 1982 to convert the building into market-rate apartments with retail space, also requiring the developer to set aside 54,000 square feet for nonprofits, which is currently made up of various theater groups. The nonprofits’ rent of $4 per square foot expired in October, and Rockrose had planned to increase the rent to 20 percent off of the current market value of the space, which would have resulted in a 500 percent rent hike. The new agreement allows the nonprofits’ rents to increase by 3 percent per year when their leases come up for renewal.