"Tishman Speyer plunked down a whopping $5.4 billion for the Manhattan apartment complexes in 2006 with an eye toward converting rent-stabilized complex into a thriving hot spot for higher-income, market-rate renters - something its previous owner, MetLife, failed to accomplish.This was before the housing bust, and even then the magnitude of the project raised eyebrows.
Since that time, some of those concerns have panned out. Tishman Speyer has faced mounting legal bills associated with flipping rent-stabilized units to market rent. And it has been burning through cash on renovations, including planting 10,000 trees."
Stuy Town Blues [New York Post]
Jason Sheftell of the NY Daily News should definitely take some lessons from the NY Post journalist who wrote this article, Kaja Whitehouse, on truth and accuracy in reporting!
Planting of 10,000 trees makes it sound as if they are ecologists and not the greedy, inept fools that they are. There is no mention of the other issues that plague us or waste money---the inept planting and re-planting, the mud and floods, the paving and re-paving, the drilling and re-drilling, the endless noise, the 3am garbage run, etc, etc, etc.
I have a question about what the tenants had in mind when they made a purchase offer to Met-Life which was rejected. Was the aim to turn the place into a co-op? If so, perhaps we are fortunate that it didn't happen, given today"s economic woes.
I do worry about what will happen to Stuy Town in the future.
Funny how Curbed has cut back on their Sty Town coverage. I guess they are too busy covering ice cream trucks and smart cars these days. They haven't mentioned any of these recent articles.
Bud Perrone must have gotten Joey one of those citronella collars that gases him if he writes about ST.
I think Frank ate Joey's balls. He sings soprano now as his dishwasher hums along.
They burned through 400 MILLION of the debt reserves in two years!! Ahhhhhhh!! are you kidding me?! Who wrote their business plan?? A bunch of idiot analysts from Lehman brothers?? Ahahaha! Wait a second...