The Daily Dirt: Throwing rent-stabilized landlords a bone

Rent-stabilized owners are looking for a lifeline. Here’s what is on the table.

The state Senate’s one-house budget resolution pitches $40 million in grant money to help repair vacant, rent-stabilized apartments in New York City, as well as Nassau, Westchester and Rockland Counties. Each owner could receive up to $100,000 to renovate apartments that had been continuously occupied for 15 or more years.

Estimates on how many such units are vacant vary widely. Spread across 2,000 units, the Senate funding would average $20,000 per unit. Across 20,000 units, it would be $2,000 apiece. Either way, the grant money would not nearly cover the cost of repairing all of these apartments; landlords have said bringing a vacant apartment back online after a long tenancy can cost upwards of $100,000.

The Senate also signaled that it is willing to explore increasing the cap on individual apartment improvements. The 2019 rent law limited rent increases resulting from such repairs to $83 per month. Lawmakers did not say what kinds of changes they could stomach, but it seems landlords are not viewing this as something that would make much of a dent.

The Community Housing Improvement Program has been pushing a bill that would allow landlords to raise rents up to a point on vacant stabilized apartments that have been continuously occupied for a decade or more. The units would then continue to be limited to rent increases approved by the city’s rent board.

The Assembly’s resolution does not include these proposals.

Also this week, the Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of two more challenges to the state’s rent law. The plaintiffs in those cases, G-Max Management and the Building and Realty Institute of Westchester and Putnam Counties, could still petition the U.S. Supreme Court, which has already declined to hear three other rent law cases. Though Justice Clarence Thomas indicated a willingness to hear an “appropriate future case,” the cases still face an uphill battle.

What we’re thinking about: What city libraries offer the best opportunities to build housing? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.

A thing we’ve learned: The Department of Buildings has 21 staffers dedicated to enforcing Local Law 97, according to City Limits. That is nearly double the number it had as of last month.

Elsewhere in New York…

— Mount Sinai Beth Israel is increasingly sending patients with potentially life-threatening illnesses to other emergency rooms because it no longer provides certain services, Politico New York reports. Mount Sinai announced in September that it plans to close the Manhattan hospital, which requires state approval.

— The state Assembly on Tuesday approved a measure that would ban fracking that uses liquefied carbon dioxide to extract methane from shale, Spectrum News reports. The state permanently banned fracking with water in 2021, to the disappointment of some upstate landowners looking to cash in.

— A state audit found that the Long Island Rail Road is not prepared for severe weather events and has not completed a risk assessment recommended by the MTA 15 years ago, Newsday reports. “Severe weather is becoming more common and a failure to properly plan and be prepared will cause more commuter headaches like train delays and service disruptions,” state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement. “While extreme weather such as blizzards, heavy rain, wind storms or heat waves cannot be prevented, railroad officials need to be prepared to minimize its impacts.” LIRR acting president Robert Free said the assessment is underway. 

Residential: The priciest sale of Wednesday was $9.95 million for a 10,700-square-foot home at 3 Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side.

Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was $34.8 million for a 48,500-square-foot hotel development site at 291 Livingston Street in Brooklyn.

New to the Market: The priciest residential property to hit the market on Wednesday was $19.95 million for a 5,600-square-foot condominium unit at 150 Charles Street in the West Village. Josh Rubin of Douglas Elliman has the listing. 

Breaking Ground: The largest new building filing of the day was a 103,000-square-foot, senior housing development at 1020 Beach Street in Queens. Permits were filed by Newman Design Architects. — Matthew Elo