The Daily Dirt: NY’s rent law remains intact

Four years ago, landlord groups filed a lawsuit challenging New York’s rent law. 

The groups — the Rent Stabilization Association and the Community Housing Improvement Program — always planned to take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

They anticipated that the lower courts would not endorse their arguments, but that the high court might deliberate on whether the state’s rent stabilization law represented an unconstitutional taking.

On Monday, those hopes were dashed. The Supreme Court rejected the groups’ petition for Writ of Certiorari.

There are two other petitions, but based on my conversations with supporters and opponents of the actions, property owners shouldn’t hold their breath that those cases will succeed.

Those cases include as-applied challenges, while the RSA and CHIP-led case raised facial challenges to the rent law. Translated from legalese: The surviving cases argue that in specific instances the rent law is unlawful, whereas the rejected case claimed the law itself was unconstitutional.

Todd Rose, the attorney in one of the cases, hopes the narrower approach for challenging the rent law will advance. But Legal Aid Society’s Ellen Davidson said the cases rely too heavily on hypothetical scenarios, rather than specific instances that demonstrate illegality in the law.

“I still believe that the arguments made by the plaintiffs go counter to long-standing precedences of the Supreme Court,” she said. “I think the Supreme Court is likely to deny cert in these cases.”

ICYMI, I spoke with Hiten Samtani, Jay Martin and @GoodGuyGuaranty about the case during a Spaces segment on X (formerly Twitter).

What we’re thinking about: Who will buy Rudin Management’s 80 Pine Street? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.

A thing we’ve learned: “October” originally described the eighth month of the year, under the pre-46 B.C.E. Roman calendar, according to the Etymology Online Dictionary and Merriam-Webster.

Elsewhere in New York…

— The MTA has fallen short in some of its efforts to protect the subways from climate change, Gothamist reports. An audit by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found some capital projects were approved without assurances that they were flood-proof and that sustainability projects laid out in a 2009 plan remained incomplete.

— Republicans accuse Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from Yonkers, of purposely pulling a fire alarm at the Capitol on Saturday to delay a vote on the federal spending bill, Politico New York reports. Bowman says he pulled the alarm because he misinterpreted signage near an emergency exit.

— Nearly 400 employers across the state have signed up for a program aimed at connecting them with migrants eligible for work permits, City and State reports. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that some 18,000 should be available. 

Data: 

Closing Time

Residential: The priciest residential closing Monday was $17 million for a condo at 520 Park Avenue in Lenox Hill.

Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day $3.3 million for an 18-unit apartment building at 450 East 144th Street, the Bronx.

New to the Market: The priciest residence to hit the market Monday was a townhouse at 160 East 83rd Street on the Upper East Side asking $18.5 million. Douglas Elliman has the listing. 

Breaking Ground: The largest new building filing of the day was for a 421,740 square-foot, 12-story, mixed-use building at 1709 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn. The permit application was filed by 59 Architecture and Engineering.