Beam Living, the management company at the sprawling Stuyvesant Town complex in Manhattan, has let some employees go.
The layoffs occurred in the administration, construction and real estate departments, sources said. Beam Living is owned by asset management firm Blackstone Group, the world’s largest commercial landlord, which last quarter reported having $156 billion in dry powder.
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“We value the hard work of every member of our team and the decision to part with any of them is a very difficult one,” a spokesperson for Beam Living said in a statement. The spokesperson noted the layoffs represented about 2.5 percent of the company and were fewer than 20 people.
The spokesperson said that Beam Living does not foresee any more staff reductions this year.
Beam did not comment on what drove the layoffs. It also manages Peter Cooper Village, Stuy Town’s more upscale sister complex, as well as Kips Bay Court and the Grove in Manhattan, and Parker Towers in Forest Hills, Queens.
Susan Steinberg, the president of the Stuy Town’s tenants association, said operations at the 11,000-apartment complex, which Blackstone bought in 2015, had remained “pretty good,” despite the coronavirus and the layoffs.
Steinberg attributed the staff reductions to residents leaving the complex — which she said was evidenced by moving trucks dotting the avenues in the complex.
Other landlords and apartment management companies affected by the pandemic sought forgivable loans from the Small Business Administration to keep employees on the payroll. Residential landlords were excluded from receiving the loans, but those with management companies got them anyway.
Chestnut Holdings, one of the largest landlords in the Bronx with more than 6,000 units, said it received between $500,000 and $1 million from the SBA to maintain essential services.