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LandlordsNY Briefing for November 21th
Please enjoy an abridged briefing today. We'll be back with a full briefing Friday.
- Global stocks bounced back after the United States saw significant selloffs yesterday. [Wall Street Journal]
- The New York City Council will introduce legislation next week requiring large buildings to cut emissions by 40 percent by 2030. [Crain's New York]
- Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that 62,000 units run by the New York City Housing Authority will be turned over to private developers and converted into Section 8 apartments. [6sqft]
- The Gural family plans to erect a $240 million biotech center in Long Island City, which, prior to the announcement that the western Queens … read more
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LandlordsNY MemberPrices Along Subway Lines Could Jump as Much as 40% Because of HQ2
Love it or hate it, Amazon’s decision to build half of its second headquarters, HQ2, in Long Island City will be transformative for New York City. Those who are in favor of Amazon’s decision note that HQ2 will bring jobs to the city and an enormous influx of wealth and development to northwestern Queens. Detractors contend that $3 billion in taxpayer money was handed over to Amazon, that the trillion-dollar company will only invest $2.5 billion in local infrastructure, that existent communities in North Brooklyn and much of Queens will be irrevocably changed, that the waves of gentrification and displacement that have rippled throughout … read more
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LandlordsNY Briefing for November 20th
United States housing starts rose by 1.5 percent from September to October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.228 million, according to a report issued by the Commerce Department. The modest increase is due to a jump in multifamily building in October. Starts for single-family homes, meanwhile, dropped. Permits were also down, as was consumer optimism with regards to purchasing a home.
While broader trends show a modest increase in starts over the course of the year, factors such as mounting construction costs and rising interest rates seem to be suppressing growth and pulling down consumer sentiment. Given that wages are … read more
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LandlordsNY Member
Case of the Week: Padilla v. Rodgruez
As any landlord knows, there are numerous types of people who can be found in a building. There are tenants (obviously), owners, and employees of the building. There may also be workers who have been contracted out to perform some amount of work, guests of the owner, and a class of people who are known as “occupants,” whom New York State Real Property Law § 235-f.1(b) defines as, “a person [or persons], other than a tenant or a member of a tenant’s immediate family, occupying a premise with the consent of the tenant or tenants.”
An owner can also give a license for the short-term occupation of a part of a property without exclusive occupation of said property. … read more
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LandlordsNY Briefing for November 19th
United States home-builder confidence plummeted this month, largely due to the high cost of construction, the high cost of housing, and rising interest rates. All these factors are also contributing to waning housing demand.
The National Association of Home Builders, which is responsible for creating the index, said that its housing-market index dropped to 60 in November, an 8-point decline from October. It is also the lowest level the index has seen since 2016. (However, it is important to note that any index measurement above 50 is considered positive.)
Seeing a decline in the index was not a shock to analysts, but the magnitude of the drop did come as a bit of … read more
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The LNY November Meet-Up: Buyouts and the Art of Elevator Maintenance
The LandlordsNY Monthly Meet-Up for November was held yesterday. As always, we learned a great deal from our guests and enjoyed some networking with the members who attended. Before learning about evictions and squatters from our featured guests Marshal Robert Renzulli and Robert Sedaghatpour of STRATCO, however, we heard from our sponsor, Structural System Services.
As they have repeatedly posted on the LNY blog, the representatives from the firm reminded those in attendance that door-lock monitors must be installed on all their freight and passenger elevators by January 1, 2020. Their presentation was not only a reminder of this … read more
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LandlordsNY Briefing for November 16th
The City Planning Commission has certified a rezoning proposal for the Bay Street corridor from Tompkinsville to Shore Acres—which follows the western shore of Staten Island south of St. George and north of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The public-review process is now set to commence.
Specifically, the proposal will affect a 14-block area along Bay Street between Victory Boulevard and Sands Street. It will also include a two-block section of Canal Street south of Bay Street. The stretch of Bay Street is currently zoned as a light manufacturing district. The land west of Bay Street is zoning R3X, which allows low-density … read more
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LandlordsNY Member
What Landlords Need to Know About Snow Removal
The first snow of the season is upon us so we thought it would be a good idea to revisit the responsibilities of landlords and property owners with regards to snow, as well as the best way to prepare for the remainder of the season. It will keep your tenants happy and guard you against any lawsuit arising from a slip and fall.
The first step is preparation. For those who do not have a driveway, parking lot, or a lot of frontage, a snow blower is probably overkill. What you should have is a good snow shovel, ice melt, and a floor mat at the entrance of your building.
For a shovel, you should spend the extra money on … read more
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LandlordsNY Member
City Council Considers Easing Restrictions on Basement Apartments
The New York City Council's Committee on Housing and Buildings met Tuesday the 13th for a hearing on Int 1004. If passed, the bill will create a pilot program in Brooklyn's Community District 5 (East New York, Broadway Junction, Cypress Hills, and Starrett City) that will allow for the creation of 40 housing units in the basements/cellars of one- and two-family homes. The program will be run for three years before an agency to be appointed by the Mayor’s Office will review its impact and either recommend the program be expanded or recommend it be suspended. Said report will be given to the mayor and the speaker of the City Council no more … read more
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LandlordsNY Midday Links for November 15th
The snow is beginning to come down out there. It will likely turn to rain in the city later tonight. Upstate, however, is expecting accumulation some serious accumulation. As a refresher, see what landlords need to know about snow removal.
Here are your midday links:
- Amazon’s decision to build half of its second headquarters, HQ2, in New York City may result in a “prosperity bomb.” [Wall Street Journal, 6sqft]
- There are numerous people who are opposed to HQ2 in Long Island City. [Politico, New York Times, New York Post, Times Ledger, The Atlantic]
- However, some argue that there are potential benefits of tax incentives for big companies like Amazon, though not in … read more
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LandlordsNY Briefing for November 14th
New York and Virginia collectively offered Amazon over $2 billion in incentives to get the tech giant to split its second headquarters, HQ2, between the two areas. While Amazon has said that the second headquarters will create 50,000 jobs and result in $5 billion in investment, it is also likely that hundreds of millions of additional dollars will have to be spent to create infrastructure to support the two campuses. From New York alone, Amazon will receive $1.525 billion. $1.2 billion of that amount will come from the Excelsior tax credit over the next decade.This was news that City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Dist. 26) … read more
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Questions about modernizing your elevator?
We are proud to participate in LNY forum this Thursday, November 15th.
Looking forward to meeting you and addressing your elevator modernization related questions!
Daniel Jeon
Email: dj@structuralsystem.services
Tel: 917-524-5700
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LandlordsNY Briefing for November 13th
Because LandlordsNY will be covering the New York City Council's hearing on legislation that could loosen restrictions on basement conversions, today's briefing will be abridged.
Amazon has officially chosen Long Island City and the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, as the two locations for its second headquarters. [New York Times, Wall Street Journal]
A group of affordable housing developers has teamed up with tenant activist groups to push for a broad range of pro-tenant reforms in Albany. [New York Daily News]
A steady reduction in the number of permit applications suggests that multifamily construction is … read more
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LandlordsNY Member
Case of the Week: In the Matter of the Administrative Appeal of Qi Long LLC
Independent Apartment Improvements are a notoriously difficult subject. However, most of the problems surrounding IAIs vanish with diligent record keeping. Should a tenant complain of an overcharge, just about any Rent Administrator will side with an owner who can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the work that was performed on the apartment was indeed performed, that it was not not just cosmetic, and that it was paid for.
Operational Bulletin 2016-1 says that owners are expected to keep a record of the following types of proof to back up these claims:
- Cancelled check(s) (front and back) contemporaneous with the completion … read more
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LandlordsNY Briefing for November 12th
Governor Andrew Cuomo is evidently considering a tactic that will allow Amazon to avoid having to submit to the City Council’s land-use review process to build its second campus (HQ2) in Long Island City. It would not bypass the Council or the local community altogether, nor would it be unusual for a project of this magnitude to do so—Brooklyn Bridge Park, Atlantic Yards, and the World Trade Center all relied on a similar process. However, it would mean that many of the terms of the deal would be hammered out in a less than transparent manner, and that community opposition will be fierce due fears of displacement and a perceived effort to radically alter the … read more
