New York Builders Paying Huge Buyouts to Tenants in Their Way

By MIREYA NAVARRO

Tishman Speyer Properties, one of New York City’s most active real estate developers, had bought two parcels of land on the Far West Side of Manhattan to clear the way for a 2.8-million-square-foot office tower planned for Hudson Yards.

Standing in the way, though, were the occupants of two apartments on the site. So this year, the developer turned to a lubricant that can be counted on to ease New York City tenants out of their rent-regulated units — a buyout, in this case, for $25 million in total to three tenants.

In New York’s exceptionally lucrative real estate market, multimillion-dollar buyouts are becoming more common, lawyers who negotiate for tenants and property owners say.

Full article, published by The New York Times on December, 24 2015

Landlord Illegally Subdividing Units at Prospect Heights Building: Tenants

By Rachel Holliday Smith

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — The landlord of a 1920s-era Eastern Parkway building has been illegally subdividing a number of units, then turning around and listing them as rental properties, tenants say, prompting the city to slap the building with a series of stop work orders.

The Department of Buildings ordered construction to cease at 85 Eastern Parkway last month, after tenants — many of them rent-stabilized — complained that work had been underway for more than a year to split some of the building’s larger apartments into a pair of smaller units.

Full article, published in DNAinfo.com on December, 23 2015

Tenants claim BK landlord tried to illegally subdivide units

Prospect Heights landlord Mordechai Nagel reportedly illegally subdivided a number of units in his 1920s-era building and listed the scaled-down sub-units as rental properties — prompting a series of stop-work orders from the city’s Department of Buildings. Construction ceased at 85 Eastern Parkway last month after tenants in the building, many of whom are rent-stabilized, complained that work had been underway for more than a year to split several of the property’s larger apartments into smaller units. 

Full article in The Real Deal, published on December, 23 2015

Crown Heights Tenants Plan March on Landlords in Bid to Prevent Rent Hikes

By Rachel Holliday Smith on June 5, 2014 5:03pm @rachelholliday

CROWN HEIGHTS — Residents are planning a march this weekend to demand a halt to soaring rent hikes — and put their landlords on notice that they expect better treatment.

Members of the Crown Heights Tenants Union will march this Saturday through the neighborhood “to show how Crown Heights is becoming unaffordable,” starting at Washington Avenue and Eastern Parkway at noon and ending at Brower Park, according to the group’s website.

The Crown Heights Tenants Union formed last fall to organize as many renters in the area as possible, said Cea Weaver, 24, a Crown Heights resident and organizer with CHTU. She said the group now has roughly 30 tenant associations on board with the union’s list of demands, which they will deliver to their landlords during the march.

Among the demands include urging landlords to be more responsive to tenants' requests for repairs. They also want landlords to automatically renew leases unless otherwise notified by tenants, as well as the right for tenants to obtain a rent history to inspect whether the rent amounts have been improperly increased at any time in the past, according to the document.

But the larger goal of the rally, Weaver said, is to make their demands heard beyond Crown Heights in the runup to June 23, the date set for the Rent Guidelines Board to vote on rent increases for rent-regulated apartments for the next five years.

“We are really hoping to building momentum for that citywide issue, [while] at the same time, letting the landlord know we’re here, we want to work with you, these are the things we want you to do to work with us,” Weaver said.

Members of the 85 Eastern Parkway Tenants Association in Prospect Heights will lend their support at the march to say “enough is enough,” said Isabelle Broyer, 47, a worker at the United Nations and a member of the association. After her landlord submitted plans to double the size of her apartment building without alerting tenants, she attended one of CHTU’s monthly membership meetings.

“They really have an agenda,” she said. “It’s not just for complaining about the situation. They’re really trying to do something about it.”

Full articles here (Dnainfo, June 5, 2014)

Huge Addition to Prospect Heights Building Worries Tenants

Residents of the six-story building at 85 Eastern Parkway were shocked when they learned that their landlord wanted to construct an addition atop the building that would double the size of the structure. The plans were first filed in January and called for a seven-story addition that would up the number of units from 42 to 88. DNAinfo reports that the Department of Buildings has since rejected that application, but the project is by no means dead. In March, the building owner, Mordechai Nagel, sent a letter to tenants regarding the addition, noting that plans are still "at an early feasibility and planning stage," but they should "expect a degree of inconvenience as there always is during construction activity."

The apartments are currently a mix of market-rate and rent-stabilized-units, and many tenants have lived in the building for decades. Tenants are, obviously, very worried about the project, and they've started tracking the development on a tenants association website. Chief among the tenants' concerns are the credentials of the hired architect, Sandor Weiss. In 2002, Weiss was fined $5,000 for not properly reviewing plans before signing off, and DOB records show that he has been disciplined twice for improperly wielding his self-certification powers, which he had to surrender in the past.

The plan for the addition still hasn't been approved by the Department of Buildings, but an alteration permit for the "removal of interior partition and plumbing fixtures" was approved in March. Additionally, permits were approved for the renovation of a first floor apartment in January, but the project was hit with a Stop Work Order in March. Shortly after that, the DOB issued another violation after finding workers doing plumbing in violation of the original SWO. The SWO still stands.

The building sits between Washington and Underhill Avenues across the parkway from the Brooklyn Museum. It was constructed in 1922, but it's not located in a historic district. All of the buildings on the block have a similar aesthetic and the immediate neighbors are roughly the same height as no. 85. But the block (which is oddly long due to the street grid in this area) is bookended by 15-story and 12-story buildings, so a 13-story building wouldn't be too out of place—unless, of course, the addition is some garish glass monstrosity.

Article by Jessica Dailey on Curbed.com (New York) on 10 April 2014

Eastern Parkway Residents Fear 7-Story Apartment Building Addition

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Plans for a six-story building near Grand Army Plaza to more than double in height have residents worried their home will be disrupted by years of construction.

The owner of 85 Eastern Parkway, a 42-unit complex near Underhill Avenue, has filed an application to build a seven-story addition on top of the building, records show. Tenants of the building called The Martha Washington said they fear being bombarded by noise and dust, and even being moved out of their apartments.

“The whole block is in an uproar,” said 23-year resident Alison Kelley, who walks with a service dog and worries about elevator access to her fourth-floor apartment during construction.

Residents of the mixed market-rate and rent-stabilized building near the Brooklyn Museum first heard about the planned 30,000-square-foot addition when a real estate website wrote about an application building owner Mordechai Nagel and architect Sandor Weiss filed with the Department of Buildings on Jan. 10.

The DOB rejected the application, saying drawings provided were incomplete, DOB records show.

Full article by Rachel Holliday Smith on DNAinfo.com, 10 April 2014

Double The Fun (Curbed.com) - 13 January 2014

The six-story rental building at 85 Eastern Parkway in Prospect Heights is set to more than double in height. Filings with the Department of Buildings show plans for an eight-story addition, which will bring the number of units from 42 to 82, with the top two floors being one duplex penthouse. The current building dates to 1922 and is located between Underhill and Washington Avenues. There are no renderings yet and details are lacking, but we bet these new units will be sold as condos. Thoughts? Intel? The tipline is open. [BuzzBuzz]

More 

Adding new floors atop old buildings (New York Times) - October 1999

And as certain areas of the city have been rezoned from commercial to residential use, Mr. Visconti said, developers find it feasible -- particularly in lower Manhattan where many older buildings retain unused development rights -- ''to buy buildings and add two, three or whatever the lot will yield in the way of additional floor area.''

The phenomenon has generated considerable controversy, particularly from neighbors of buildings experiencing unanticipated growth spurts and, in some cases, people already living in the buildings.

There are immediate concerns, like the din of construction, fear of falling debris and fire safety; and longer-term issues, like access to light and air, the structural integrity of the old building, the historic character of the community and, in grittier districts, the frustration that ''there goes the neighborhood'' (upscale).

Not to mention sudden loss of that precious commodity: view.

Full article