Denizens of our city’s unionized buildings can set down their trashbags.
A tentative contract agreement was announced by the city’s building workers and owners, represented by Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union and the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, respectively.
The deal comes after a Wednesday strike authorization led to buildings sending breathless emails — including to some The Real Deal staffers — warning of a lawless new world, where residents man the front desk, take out their own garbage and, dare I say it, pick up their deliveries from the lobby.
That didn’t come to pass, and hasn’t in what is now 35 years since the last strike.
Instead, these negotiations followed the same process that has gone on for decades: the union authorizes a strike, everybody writes about the impending doom set to befall city residents and the two sides strike a deal at the 11th-hour, or later.
In fact, this bargaining cycle proved to be far less dramatic than others, like in 2010, when the two sides reached a deal four minutes after the 12:01 a.m. deadline on April 21.
On Friday, union president Manny Pastreich and RAB president Howard Rothschild stood in front of a press corp at the Midtown Hilton Hotel pointing to both sides’ shared concerns over cost of living in the city.
The deal includes a $4.50 per hour wage increase by the end of the new four-year contract, no premium sharing on healthcare benefits and a 15 percent improvement to the guaranteed pension.
“This agreement is a win, win, win, win,” Rothschild said.
Not even the introduction of a very pro-worker mayor, or a looming rent freeze that could shrink owners margins was enough to interrupt negotiations.
So bookmark this article for 2030 when the drumbeat of a strike rolls into a town again and you start to worry about how you’ll get your trash down the elevator.
What we’re thinking about: Everybody is talking about the governor’s proposed pied-à-terre tax. I’m curious what the real effects will be — are people already talking about moving, or are we going to see a lot of homes selling for $4,999,999? Let me know your thoughts at jacob.indursky@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: I generally scoff at people waiting in lines for popular restaurants in the city, so it was exciting to see that I now don’t need to leave my home to do so, thanks to a new website, damnlines.com, that provides live camera feeds of popular foodie destinations.
Elsewhere…
— Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expanding the city’s trash containerization program, Gothamist reported. Former Mayor Eric Adams oversaw a pilot program of 1,100 bins placed in Harlem that city officials have said significantly improved rat sightings. The new program would roll out another 6,500 bins in lieu of street parking spots by the end of 2027.
— The Trump-Mamdani lovefest hit a snag over taxes, Bloomberg reported. “Sadly, Mayor Mamdani is DESTROYING New York! It has no chance! The United States of America should not contribute to its failure. It will only get WORSE,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday. “The TAX, TAX, TAX Policies are SO WRONG. People are fleeing. They must change their ways, AND FAST. History has proven, THIS ‘STUFF’ JUST DOESN’T WORK.” It’s not clear what taxes he was referring to, but one must imagine that the pied-à-terre tax proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and supported by Mamdani is rankling the Palm Beach crowd more than most.
Closing time
Residential: The largest residential sale Friday was $12.3 million for 16 Fifth Avenue, Unit 9. The new construction condo in Greenwich Village is 3,700 square feet. The Corcoran Group’s Tara King-Brown has the listing.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale was $50.5 million for 74 Eigth Avenue. The West Village building has seven units and is 7,600 square feet. Real estate investment firm G4 Capital is selling the space to office investor Spear Street Capital.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $36.5 million for 50 West 66th Street, Unit 58N. The new construction condo on the Upper West Side is 4,900 square feet. Developer Extell Marketing is in charge of the listing side.
— Joseph Jungermann