Brooklyn Space March 6, 2024
Affordable housing advocates marched through Lower Manhattan, demanding an end to corporate tax breaks and the passage of good cause eviction laws, April 21, 2022.
Photo: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Photo: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
How N.Y.’s ‘Good Cause Eviction’ Bill Breaks From Other States’ Laws
Proposed rent-gouging protections are tougher than anywhere in the nation — and a new report says they could make apartments harder to find. Three words may determine whether Albany can pass legislation to deal with New York’s housing crisis, say tenant advocates and their allies in the legislature: Good cause eviction. Pass a version of our proposal, and we will support tax breaks and other steps to build more housing, they say.
But as the tenant groups ramp up their lobbying exertions and stage public demonstrations in support of the bill, the New York proposal differs substantially from similar measures elsewhere in the country —with Albany’s proposed rent hike limit less than half of the 10% increases permitted in California and Oregon.
And a new policy brief, published last week by the Furman Center at New York University, argues that the New York proposal is essentially an effort at extending rent regulation to free market apartments and will have unintended consequences that could have negative repercussions for tenants, especially in buildings with only a few units.
Quick Links
Skip scrolling, here are the top stories you need for today:
- Developer Eyes Rezoning to Build 250 units on Empire Boulevard
- Permits Filed For 100 Boerum Place In Cobble Hill
- Senator Willing to Negotiate Rent Limit on “Good Cause”
- NYC Landlords Keep Fewer Stabilized Apartments Vacant than You Think, officials say
- That $8,000 Two-Bedroom Comes With a Week of Summer Camp
Around Kings County
Developer Eyes Rezoning to Build 250 units on Empire Boulevard
Bridges Development and Adjmi brothers plan Brooklyn apartments and retail to transform a long-neglected corner lot on Brooklyn’s Empire Boulevard into a mixed-use development with affordable housing. Manhattan-based Bridges Development Group has submitted preliminary plans for a 13-story, 250,000-square-foot residential building with three levels of retail to the Department of City Planning, marking the typical first step in the rezoning process. The project at 73-99 Empire Boulevard would include about 250 studio to three-bedroom apartments, more than half of them affordable, Bridges’ Michael Berfield said. The 90,000-square-foot retail portion of the project, on the border of Crown Heights and Prospect Heights, would also include a grocery. “The community has been focused on affordable housing and more affordable grocery stores,” Berfield said. “It’s a project that checks a lot of boxes in what the community is looking for, and as developers, what we’re comfortable working with.”
Retailers Eye Brooklyn’s Prestige Shopping Corridors, Leaving Others Behind
While some Brooklyn landlords have their pick of the retail litter, others are seeing their tenants recede, rents drop and increasing competition from new developments as the borough rapidly evolves.
That $8,000 Two-Bedroom Comes With a Week of Summer Camp
A luxury building in Fort Greene is making a new push on an unusual perk — free summer camp. The tower at 250 Ashland Place near the border of Downtown Brooklyn has paired with Treasure Trunk Theatre, a Brooklyn-based theatrical arts program for children, to host a free camp during a week in which many camps aren’t available — this year, August 19 to August 23. The Ashland has been providing the camp hookup for the past three years (this will be the fourth), according to a spokesperson from the Gotham Organization, the tower’s developer. This year’s theme will be a Taylor Swift one.
Permits Filed For 100 Boerum Place In Cobble Hill
Construction permits have been filed for 100 Boerum Place, a 60,000-square-foot residential building in Cobble Hill. Designed by Brooklyn-based Brent Buck Architects and developed by Avdoo & Partners Development, the project is slated to begin construction in July on a 17,000-square-foot plot at the corner of Boerum Place and Pacific Street. The project is Avdoo’s fourth active venture in Brooklyn.
Housing Solutions From Across The Globe
Photo: Daisy Gonzales via Pexels.
Los Angeles Seeks Speedier Way to Build New Affordable Homes
Architect Brian Lane calls it “1,000 ways to no.” That’s the wall of red tape that he and his colleagues at the Santa Monica-based firm Koning Eizenberg hit when they proposed affordable housing projects around Los Angeles. Regulations and code enforcement lead to delays, which drive up costs, kill projects, and exacerbate Southern California’s stifling housing shortage.
But over the last year, builders say that this bureaucratic morass has eased somewhat, thanks to the mayoral order known as Executive Directive 1.
Mayor Karen Bass signed ED 1 shortly after taking office in December 2022 at the site of an infamous project that took over a decade to be approved. The emergency declaration promised to open a new era: directing city departments involved in planning and decision-making to expedite 100% affordable projects, sidestepping codes and regulations that have long added delays and costs. Approvals that might otherwise have taken a year or more are now mandated to happen within a 60-day window, with building permits to be issued within five days.
Perspectives
➤ NYC Landlords Keep Fewer Stabilized Apartments Vacant than You Think, officials say
New York City’s housing agency says the number of low-cost, rent-stabilized apartments being held vacant plummeted last year amid an increasingly dire shortage of affordable units. The comparatively low number of housing units being held off the market — or “warehoused” — belies estimates by both landlord groups and housing advocates who are locked in a dispute over how to get owners to bring empty rent-stabilized apartments on the market. Landlords have argued that state rent regulations make the units so unprofitable that they’re better off leaving them vacant. Tenant groups have argued that money-hungry owners are starving the city’s affordable housing supply while they wait for changes to those regulations.
➤ New York Rents Are Surging Even as Rest of the US Sees Relief
One-bed rentals in NYC increased 18% in February compared with a year earlier, but prices were down nationally, according to a new report. Rents are cooling in most US cities. In New York, they’re up double digits. One-bedroom rentals in New York — the nation’s most expensive city to rent in — surged 18% in February compared to last year, to $4,200, according to a new report by rental site Zumper. Jersey City, located across the Hudson River from Manhattan, also saw a jump, with median rents increasing 5.4% to $3,140.
➤ Senator Willing to Negotiate Rent Limit on “Good Cause”
Salazar and other progressives lay out demands for housing deal. We’re almost one month away from the state budget deadline. The prospects of a housing package coming together before then are not great. But a lot can happen between now and April 1, and we’re still waiting on the one-house budget resolutions from the Senate and Assembly to get a better sense of where the chambers will land on key proposals.
➤ Op-ed: Housing Development Lessons from 5 World Trade Center
Pretty much everyone agrees there isn’t enough housing in New York City to meet demand, especially the affordable kind. Albany can help. Lawmakers need to create a new 421-a program, raise the floor-area ratio cap and streamline the environmental review process. I’m not saying it would be easy. But with political will, it can be done. Take Lower Manhattan as an example of what’s possible. The 5 World Trade Center development site was outside of the normal land use process. But, local representatives, Albany leadership and the community came together and proved that we can forge a way forward. Through negotiation and compromise, a large-scale development was approved with substantial affordability included. Albany lawmakers can make it easier for projects like this to happen across the city.
➤ State Must Give City Control over Housing Development
New York City should seize control over its own land-use policies, the influential business leader Kathryn Wylde said, arguing that state lawmakers have failed to take action on the region’s crushing affordability crisis. Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, made the comments at a Crain’s Power Breakfast on Tuesday, where she was interviewed alongside Rob Speyer, CEO of the real estate firm Tishman Speyer and a co-chair of the Partnership. The discussion also touched on congestion pricing, the office market and the business world’s apprehension about this year’s presidential election. Pointing to the state-imposed limits on residential density and property tax breaks that city leaders have unsuccessfully begged Albany to change, Wylde endorsed calls for the state Legislature to pass a law ceding its authority over those issues.
➤ Tackling Housing Crisis, New York City Moving Forward with Office Conversion Accelerator Program
New York City is known as the business capital of the world. But ever since the pandemic, office buildings have been sitting empty across the five boroughs. City Hall is hoping to turn this problem into a solution to the current housing crisis. CBS New York got an exclusive look at one of the first buildings converting to residential housing and has learned more about how this may change the landscape of the Big Apple.
Think there’s something we should cover?
Email [email protected].
Brooklyn Space for Living, Working & Investing is produced by Eagle Urban Media.
Copyright (C) 2023 by Eagle Urban Media. All rights reserved.
Leave a Comment
Related Articles
Good Food March 8, 2024
Good Food March 1, 2024
Brooklyn Space February 28, 2024
Leave a Comment
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.