From the October issue: Seven months ago, few could have guessed that NYC’s arcane procedures over deed restrictions would become the stuff of headlines, much less the source of a political scandal that was set to be at the center of a City Council hearing late last month.
But that’s exactly what happened when questions arose in March about the city’s involvement in the Allure Group’s $116 million sale of Rivington House, a former nursing home on the Lower East Side, to condo developers. Prior to the sale, the city lifted the property’s deed restriction, which had mandated that Rivington be used only for a nonprofit purpose. [more]