November 2009 Archives

The Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village Tenant Community has shut down their online forum. The STPCVTC forum, started by a tenant in Peter Cooper Village, hoped to fill the void left by the Tenants Association who closed their online forums abruptly last year.

For years the Tenants Association provided a forum where they shared information directly with the tenants. Soon after we started publishing Lux Living in April of 2008, the Tenants Association disabled, then removed their forums. Various sources close to the TA said the forums were shut down becuase it was easier for Lux Living to share the TA's information with our Stuy Town readers than it was for them to run and maintain their own forum.

Though we are greatful for our readers, Lux Living should not be a replacement source for straight facts and legal information, especially in light of what's going on with the J-51 ruling.

* Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper worth about $1.86 bln

* Other NYC apartment buildings' values off more than 60 pct

* Bankruptcy may be the best solution for Stuyvesant

NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A recent decision by New York's highest court that the owners of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village unlawfully deregulated apartment rents is likely to significantly harm New York apartment investment for several years, according to a Deutsche Bank report released on Monday.

The New York State Court of Appeals ruling has significant ramifications not only for Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village but for thousands of New York City apartment properties that got the same tax break received by the owners of the sister developments that encompass 80 acres, 52 buildings and more than 11,000 apartments on the east side of Manhattan.

"The court ruling may result in billions of dollars in losses, both to property owners and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) bondholders," said the report by Deutsche Bank analysts Richard Parkus and Harris Trifon.

Last month, the court ruled that the current owner -- a consortium lead by Tishman-Speyer and BlackRock Realty Advisors, a unit of BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) -- and former owner MetLife Inc (MET.N) had illegally decontrolled and raised rents on thousands of rent stabilized apartments in Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village.

Landlords for years had deregulated apartments, following the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal's interpretation of the law that enacted the tax abatement plan.

However, when Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village was sold for $5.4 billion in 2006, its well-organized tenants challenged the practice. The resulting opinion by the New York State Court of Appeals leaves much of the other issues, including $215 million in overcharges plus punitive damages, up to the lower court to revisit.

Continue reading @ Reuters

Stuyvesant Town residents know Mac-Gray washers by a variety of names - clothes manglers, hair nests - but art? Thanks to Genevieve Gwen, curator at the Museum of Modern Art, and Stuy Town resident, starting next month select Mac-Gray washing machines will be on display at MoMA.

The exhibit titled "System Down" explores how modern technology fails people on a daily basis. "I have had such bad experiences with Mac-Gray washers," says Genevieve. "My clothes were constantly being destroyed and the machines were always falling apart. The Mac-Gray people didn't believe me so I started taking photos. A lot of photos."

As she was sorting the photos Ms.Gwen says the idea came to life right before her eyes. "This is my favorite," she says, pointing to a photo of a Mac-Gray washer with it's door partially torn off. "It looks like someone took a bat to it. Oh yes Hal 2000, I'm afraid you can help Dave!," she laughs.

The installation will feature Genevieve's photos of the Stuy Town Mac-Gray machines along side of several dioramas, recreations of the Stuy Town laundry rooms. "I want people to really experience the assault on the senses we experience at Stuy Town. The flickering florescent light bulbs, the defaced Stuy Town ads on the walls, the hair in the washers, the grinding noises the dryers make, the roaches on the floors, and the ever present smell of decay. You know, life in Stuy Town"

In their effort to continually alienate themselves from what's left of the community they destroyed, Tishman Speyer began putting up fliers for "holiday" trees in Stuy Town buildings this week. Residents wonder why using the word Christmas is perceived as non-inclusive yet it's business as usual with Chanukah.

We're going to sit shiva under the Christmas tree while we wait for someone to twist our words and call us anti-semitic.

Previously

Speyerville: Chanukah Yes, Christmas No?
Stuyvesant Town's Holiday Bush to be Lit by George Hatzmann
Stuy Town Tired of Tishman Speyer's Lifestyle Suggestions
The Twelve Days of Holiday

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Police are looking for a man wanted over a sexual assault on the Lower East Side early Sunday morning, 22nd November. The attack happened at around 4:00am near 14th Street and Avenue B. Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (Crimes) then enter TIP577.

VIDEO: Police Seek LES Sex Assault Suspect [1010WINS]

"Once again they are selling "Holiday Trees" in Stuyvesant Town. At least that is what all the ads, flyers and Stuyvesant Town website say.   Why can't we call them what they are - "Christmas Trees". What other "holiday" celebration includes a green decorated fir tree?  Is "Christmas" a dirty word that can't be spoken aloud or written, but only hinted?  To call a Christmas Tree a "Holiday Tree" is to pander to intolerant bigots whose spouting of "inclusion" is a transparent attempt to censure Christmas and any public celebration of the national holiday.  Stuyvesant Town does a great job of otherwise helping its residents celebrate Christmas with a "Christmas" Tree; in the Oval as well as a crèche, so I don't understand why they fall down with the advertising of "holiday " trees.  

My suggestion - tell the Stuyvesant Town "holiday tree" vendor you wanted to buy a Christmas Tree but since they don't sell any of those you are taking your business elsewhere.  Rockefeller Center calls its tree exactly what it is, a Christmas tree. The White House calls its tree exactly what it is, a national Christmas tree. Let's call things by their rightful names and not capitulate to those who would rather not hear the word "Christmas" spoken or written." 

Via the New York Post

The lawsuit over rents is over, but the tenants and landlords of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village are continuing to fight over $16 million in potential rent overcharges.

Yesterday, lawyers representing residents of the 80-acre Manhattan apartment complex threatened to take owner Tishman Speyer Properties back to court to hammer out a series of unresolved issues -- including the millions of dollars the owners have stashed away since March.

Fueling the fire, Manhattan City Councilman Dan Garodnick penned a harshly worded letter to Tishman president Rob Speyer accusing the landlord and partial owner of "willfully overcharging tenants."

"The holiday season is upon us, and the tenants should have the right to decide how to spend their money," the letter said.

In October, the New York Court of Appeals dealt a severe blow to StuyTown's owners, Tishman and asset manager BlackRock, ruling that they have been improperly raising rents.

Continue reading @ the New York Post

Via Reuters

Attorneys for tenants in a vast New York City apartment complex said they would ask the state court to set the next 2010 rents if negotiations with landlord Tishman Speyer are unsuccessful.

The tenants lawyers also want Tishman Speyer to hand over control of an escrow account holding a portion of the rents.

In a statement issued late on Tuesday afternoon, Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP and Bernstein Liebhard LLP said they are continuing the good faith discussions with Tishman Speyer representatives. They are working to develop a framework to resolve issues left open last month when the state's highest court said the landlords of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village wrongly raised thousands of the apartment complex's rents.

Continue reading @ Reuters

Via the New York Post

Tishman Speyer mortgage default imminent

The owners of Manhattan's Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village apartment complex are running out of money so fast they may default on their mortgage within the next few weeks.

Tishman Speyer Properties, the real estate developer that owns the historic 80-acre property with asset manager BlackRock, has just $6.75 million left in reserves for StuyTown, according to credit rating agency RealPoint.

That isn't enough even to cover December's costs, which include more than 6 percent interest on a $3 billion loan.

"We could easily see them go delinquent in December," said Steve Kurtitz, a senior vice president with RealPoint.

A person close to the StuyTown partnership said, "We fully expect the borrowers will make the December payments" -- and that default will more likely come in January.

The person, who asked not to be identified, declined to say where the extra money might come from.

The gap could be covered by rents since the reserve is meant to fill in any shortfall between costs and profit from rents, but much of the rent money has also been locked away in escrow accounts in recent months because of a major dispute with tenants.

Continue reading @ the New York Post

Stuyvesant Town residents are receiving this notice under their doors today from Tishman Speyer informing them they are only allowed to store items inside their NTT Self-Storage units and that items found outside or near the units will be thrown away.

No word on how Tishman Speyer will enforce this "rule" since they keep the area as filthy as humanly possible so it's hard to tell what's trash and what isn't.

We're also curious to know if Tishman Speyer circulated this memo to their own building employees who routinely pilfer the garbage and stash their trashy treasures on the roofs of residents' units.

How much do Tishman Speyer care about the safety of their Stuy Town residents? You know, the residents whose lives they've made miserable the past few years with their mismanagement of the property? Enough that they would park one of their vehicles in front of a fire hydrant on an otherwise empty road, against traffic. We're starting to think the "TS" on side of the trucks represents the attitude they have towards their soon to be ex-tenants: Tough Sh*t!

Tired of seeing Tishman Speyer blatantly disregarding the law? There's an app for that!

Related
Michael's Moving and Storage - Safety First!
Stuy Town Fire Caused by Careless Smoker
Free Illegal Parking on Avenue C Loop
If you plan on dying, tell first responders to bring wire cutters, or scissors, or something.

Who says Tishman Speyer is pure evil? Well, we know, everyone says it. But Stuy Town's most infamous slum lords are trying to get back on the good side of the tenants they have been terrorizing since 2006 by offering a new amenity just in time for the holidays. Free homemade turkey brine!

That's right! Never mind those complicated Martha Stewart recipes or even Rachael Ray's "whatever, I'm a cutter" approach to the holidays. All this week Tishman Speyer is pumping turkey brine into their Stuyvesant Town apartments free of charge. They hope the brine bonanza will help tenants warm up to them in the wake of the three year campaign to force them out of their apartments. So far residents love it! "I keep forgetting about the high quality, nutritious broth pouring from my tub," says Molly Meghan. "This morning I gave my baby a bath and he came out looking like Suze Orman. We all had a laugh."

Let's hope this Thanksgiving goes smoother than last year!

Ah, Stuyvesant Town. The middle-class housing complex turned faux-lux rentals turned faux-college campus turned Law & Order fodder never ceases to amaze us.

It used to be that residents enjoyed spending time relaxing in the Oval, feeding the squirrels, admiring the freshly planted flowers, and socializing with one another. In the Tishman Speyer era of Stuyvesant Town, socializing has taken a downward spiral. Sadly the only seed being planted in the Oval these days are by the disgusting low-lifes Tishman Speyer has scraped out of the gutter and handed leases to.

You know the ones. They have sex in security booths, leave their crusty thongs in the bushes, and now - a new low - discard used condoms on the sidewalks after a sweaty pounding brought on by the intoxicating combination of Georgi vodka and Axe body spray. Class with a K!

A resident passing by 19 Stuyvesant Oval was less than thrilled when she stepped and slid on a Coney Island Whitefish that washed up in the Oval. We know what you're thinking - Lux Living, don't you go and blame those NYU students! We won't. We know they have taken time off from their busy schedule - setting aside high-priority tasks such as peeing on absorbent surfaces - to focus on their successful letter writing campaign, fighting for real community change by whining back their free shuttles.

Instead we'll blame douchebags that will forever be associated with Tishman Speyer's Pottersville - the uber privileged, early 20's to mid 30's, white male, Wall Street cliches. The four guys who live in the apartment next door to you. You know, the apartment that blares Anchorman every Saturday night at 2AM and evokes the same level of hilarity it did the first 75 times they watched it. We know, they are watching it again right now...sigh.

Stuy Town's brown water problem is back, and just in time! What soon-to-be foreclosed property wouldn't be complete without unusable, brown sludge pouring from the drains - Speyer-style! Seasoned Lux Living readers may remember the brown water epidemic that plagued Stuy Town last year. Tish-Spey and the DEP blamed the problem on everything from broken water pipes to the Croton water source for the mess.

One vocal Stuy Town tenant who was hit the hardest by the brown water - a woman living with cancer who was forced to bath with bottled water for months - passed away earlier this year. The DEP Deputy Commissioner, Anne Canty, said the water may look "unappealing" but there is "nothing in that water that is harmful to your health." Riiight.

Via NYUnews.com

NYU is planning more alterations to its bus systems. These changes follow student complaints about route and stop eliminations, and are the latest in a series of reforms to the bus schedule this semester.

Effective Nov. 30, Route C -- which was eliminated at the beginning of the year -- will be reinstated on weekday mornings from 7:15 to 11:15 a.m., and it will provide service southbound from Stuyvesant Town to campus. The route will include a stop at Third Avenue and 14th Street.

Also effective Nov. 30, the northbound and southbound Route E bus will stop at Third Avenue and 14th Street on weekdays from 3 p.m. to midnight.

Three bus routes were eliminated by the university at the beginning of the semester, primarily for financial reasons. But Jules Martin, the vice president for public safety, said funds were added to the Department of Public Safety's budget to reinstate Route C and part of Route E.

Continue reading at NYUnews.com

Via NY1

Hundreds of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village tenants rallied Saturday to try to keep rent at the landmark apartment complex affordable.

The protest comes about a month after the state's highest court ruled landlord Tishman Speyer improperly charged market rents on thousands of apartments.

Tishman may have to refund $200 million to tenants.

Tenants NY1 spoke with said they're hopeful they'll be able to afford to stay in the community.

"I think to have this many people to turn out in this kind of rotten weather is just phenomenal and indicates the kind of commitment tenants have to saving this community," said one Stuyvesant Town resident.

"I feel very positive that we're going to be able to stay in our apartments for a long time," said another Stuyvesant Town resident.

Reports emerged earlier this year that Tishman is in danger of defaulting on a $4.4 billion loan.

Tishman says its lawyers and lawyers for the tenants are working together to try to resolve some of the issues left open by the State Court of Appeals decision.

Stuy Town Residents Call For Stabilized Future [NY1]

Related:
Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village residents rally as rent negotiations go forward [NY Daily News]

"We had three transplanted suburbanites living in a 1-bedroom, pressurized-wall apartment next door.  Not NYU but three flip-flop females that all looked alike.  One of them was the loudest creature ever!  You could hear her from the window even before she entered Stuy Town!   And she'd sing in the apartment or blast her stereo at any hour.  We hoped she'd leave and she's been moving out for this last week.  The pictures are the remnants she left in our hallway as her final f*** you to everyone here.

She told a kid on the floor that one year was enough here and they were moving to another building.  Good luck to whatever unlucky souls are getting them.  The absolute worst, most selfish pot-smoking loud people ever. This building should be celebrating."

WHAT a dream job Bud Perrone has. In the umpteenth article that has come out since Tishman Speyer was found guilty of illegally deregulating rent stabilized Stuy Town apartments, the Tish-Spey spokesperson continues to have "no comment" when asked about the messy lawsuit. We were wondering how, in an unstable economy, one gets a job whose sole purpose is to speak on behalf of their clients and yet only repeat the same two words over and over. The only other job we can think of where someone can be equally as useless also requires the repeating of two words: supersize that?

Via Bloomberg

Tishman Says Talks Ongoing With Stuyvesant Attorneys

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Tishman Speyer Properties LP and attorneys representing tenants at Manhattan's largest apartment complex said they "initiated good faith discussions" following a court ruling that found rent increases on about 4,350 apartments violated the law.

The two sides are talking about issues left unresolved by the Oct. 22 ruling favoring tenants at the 80-acre Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village apartment complex. The New York Court of Appeals in Albany said some rent increases were improper because the developments were built with city assistance and the building owners received tax breaks.

"Representatives for the property owner and Alexander Schmidt of Wolf Haldenstein and Bernstein Liebhard, the counsel for the plaintiffs, initiated good faith discussions late last month designed to develop a framework for quickly resolving the issues left open," Tishman Speyer and the tenants' lawyers said today in a joint statement. "Both parties are committed to working together to achieve an expedited resolution."

Continue reading @ Bloomberg.com

After NYU discontinued its bus service to Peter Cooper Village-Stuyvesant Town at the beginning of the semester, many students who live in Stuy Town brought their complaints about the change to the NYU Student Senators Council.

In response, the SSC is currently working with the university to address the issue; recently, the council submitted a proposal to the administration asking to reinstate bus service to Stuy Town during peak hours.

Because the proposal has not been approved yet, SSC members declined to give specific information about the proposal but said they were confident it would be accepted.

The student senators have had meetings with administrators, who seem willing to accommodate students, according to Steinhardt junior Katie Sylvester, a student senator and chair of the council's Student Services Committee.

"We take student input seriously and the request is under review, but no determination has yet been made," NYU spokesman John Beckman said.

Continue reading @ Washington Square News

The latest chapter in Tishman Speyer's Stuy Town soap opera includes wild animals wreaking havoc in the financially troubled housing complex.

Stuyvesant Town residents live each day expecting the worst and hoping for the best. In a few short years Tishman Speyer has turned the quiet, middle-class housing enclave into a cultural wasteland, part Animal House fraternity and part playground for self-absorbed suburbanites. In hindsight Tishman Speyer's plan seems crystal clear: cut back on building services and real amenities to save a buck and then cater to a crowd who isn't sophisticated enough to notice or even care.

Though the future of Stuyvesant Town is uncertain since Tishman Speyer was dealt an embarrassing legal blow last month for their unlawful double-dipping, the one thing that is clear is that the quality of life on the 80-acre property has declined since the Speyer's gobbled up the property in 2006. Stuy Town's already paper thin staff has been reduced again to a skeleton crew resulting in the complex looking more like a Bronx public housing project circa 1970 and less like the New York City luxury residential property the Speyer's envisioned.

The latest issue tenants are facing is animals running wild across the complex. The rat problem, which was already at bubonic plague proportion, is so bad that swarms of the diseased creatures can be seen in broad daylight roaming in the Oval. They scurry about the muddy park with zero fear now that they easily outnumber the tenants 20 to 1. They feast upon the discarded food that overflows from trash cans which go unattended for weeks. Residents are repulsed.

Stuyvesant Town in NYC looks like a default about to happen. This was a $5.4 billion mega RE deal from November of 2006. There is a $3 billion 1st mortgage. I think that Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE) own close to half of that.

The following is from a 2007 Wachovia prospectus. This shows that of the $3b mortgage $1.5 bil was taken down by 'Watchoveryou" (AKA Wells Fargo (WFC)) and later put into this $7 billion CDO (garbage). The balance was structured as a bond that ranked pari-passu with this mortgage. Those bonds made it to the government mortgage agencies.

Continue Reading @ Seeking Alpha

Via Bloomberg

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Tishman Speyer Properties LP and BlackRock Realty, owners of Manhattan's Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, need the cooperation of tenants and politicians to restructure $3 billion of debt on the complex, real estate developer Richard LeFrak said.

"It has to be some kind of grand negotiation or compromise in which government and the tenants kind of agree on a way forward," LeFrak said in an interview yesterday. His company owns more than 15,000 apartments in New York, at least a third under rent regulations similar to Stuyvesant Town's.

Government-owned mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own the biggest portion of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village's debt, which was packaged with other commercial mortgages and sold as securities. The property doesn't produce enough income to cover payments and a reserve fund to make up the shortfall will probably be depleted by year-end, Fitch Ratings said Oct. 30.

Fannie and Freddie's standing as investors make them the obvious leaders in renegotiating loan terms, LeFrak, 64, said. Fannie is also the only company likely to back a loan big enough for another investor to buy the property, he said.

Tishman and BlackRock led a partnership that bought the residential development, the largest in Manhattan, for $5.4 billion at the height of the property boom in 2006. The value has fallen to $1.8 billion, according to Fitch, and the buyers' plans to increase revenue by raising rents to market rates was thrown into question last month when an appeals court ruled such increases violated the law.

Via the New York Post

In a major signal of defeat in its once-grand plans to turn Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village into a cash cow, Tishman Speyer has handed over its $3 billion mortgage to a special servicer.

Special servicers handle troubled mortgages, often those that have defaulted or are in danger of default.

Tishman is still up-to-date on payments for the Manhattan residential landmark, but the developer is also quickly running out of cash reserves and is expected to default by year-end.

What's more, big-money investors are refusing to sink any more money into the venture because a recent court ruling has obliterated its earnings potential.

 When Tishman and money manager BlackRock teamed up to buy the middle-class apartment complex for $5.4 billion in 2006, they intended to make a mint off the 80 acres by converting rent-stabilized apartments into market-rate rentals.

But last month the New York State Court of Appeals squashed those plans -- which were already slow-going -- ruling the owner's conversion actions were against the law.

Talks between Tishman and the special servicer, CW Capital, could start as soon as this week, said sources familiar with the matter. If the two sides can't work out a deal, the property likely would then go into foreclosure.

The move to the special servicer could also pull back the curtain on the property's valuation since an appraiser will likely be called in as part of the negotiations.

Recent estimates have placed Stuy Town's value at between $1.8 billion and $2 billion. The property has about 25,000 residents.

Tenants are planning a rally Saturday at Stuyvesant Cove Park to demand their voices be heard in any negotiation or foreclosure. The rally is being organized in part by local legislators, who are pressing lenders on the property, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to consult with them on the restructuring.

Stuy Town Tremors [NY Post]

Related:
$3B Stuy-Town mortgage goes to special servicer [Crain's New York]
Stuy-Town Loan Goes Into Special Servicing [GlobeSt.com]

Via Bloomberg

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Tishman Speyer Properties LP and BlackRock Realty, the owners of Manhattan's Stuyvesant Town- Peter Cooper Village, moved closer to restructuring $3 billion in debt on the apartment complex as the property verges on default, Fitch Ratings said.

The companies turned the loan over to mortgage servicer CW Capital on Nov. 6, Fitch said in a statement. Fitch said the property doesn't produce enough income to pay the debt and a reserve fund probably will be depleted by year-end. A sale is more likely than a restructuring because the complex has lost so much value, said Kevin O'Shea, managing partner and head of the real estate practice at the law firm Allen & Overy.

"We requested that the joint venture's loan be moved to special servicer in order to facilitate negotiations on a restructuring of the debt load," said Bud Perrone, a Tishman Speyer spokesman. "The loan is not in default."

The biggest holders of the securitized mortgage are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-owned home-loan finance companies. Freddie Mac has said it doesn't expect to lose money on the bonds backed by the property. Tishman Speyer and BlackRock paid $5.4 billion for Stuyvesant Town in November 2006, near the top of the market, in the biggest deal in New York residential real estate history. They counted on increasing rents but were blocked by a tenant lawsuit and rising costs. Since 2007, U.S. commercial property values have fallen about 40 percent and apartment rents declined nationwide. The drop in prices and the credit freeze have made refinancing many loans impossible.

Wiped Out

Stuyvesant Town's worth has plunged to $1.8 billion, according to Fitch. This means that all the investors besides the senior bondholders are probably wiped out. BlackRock has written down the investment to zero, said spokesman Brian Beades. On a conference call on Oct. 20, BlackRock Chief Financial Officer Ann Marie Petach said the writedown occurred "last year."

Beades referred all further questions on Stuyvesant Town to Tishman. The Florida State Board of Administration also wrote off its $250 million investment.

Transferring a loan to a servicer means "the occurrence of a default is considered to be imminent," said O'Shea, who represented the lenders in foreclosures of Boston's John Hancock Tower and New York's Sheffield57 condominium.

A loan modification is far less likely in this case, said O'Shea.

"The borrowers' equity is currently so far underwater, there's not much point in extending the loan in the hopes that the market will recover quickly enough to service or repay the debt," O'Shea said. "You'd probably be just delaying the inevitable."

Stuyvesant Town, the textbook example of why you shouldn't let your inexperienced child make a multi-billion dollar real estate purchase with other people's money, is now removing the dentist-office-chic carpeting from it's rogue elevators.

Maintenance men have found it next to impossible to keep the elevator carpeting clean since Tishman Speyer allowed dogs and college students into Stuyvesant Town. The carpets are frequently covered in pee, excrement, and vomit though it's unclear if the funky fluids are from pet dogs or the rowdy college kids Tishman Speyer rents apartments to as dorms.

"I'm pretty sure it's the college kids," says a maintenance man who asked to remain anonymous. "The last time I checked dogs didn't wear New Balance sneakers when they stomped their feces into a rug."

Who says Stuy Town isn't signing new leases? This weekend, new residents were so eager to move in to Tishman Speyer's financially corrupt complex that they gave a big f*ck you to the local fire department! A Sty Spy snapped these photos of a Michael's Moving and Storage truck on 14th Street between B & C unloading furniture while blocking an entire sidewalk and a fire hydrant. Who do they think they are, Tishman Speyer cowboys?

Default is now imminent, we need help from every tenant to help promote the Unity Day Rally called for next Saturday, November 14 at 1:00 pm!

We have lots of news to share and a call to action...

•    The NY Observer reported on November 6 that the $3 billion mortgage on Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village was transferred to a special servicer, CWCapital, a move that implies imminent default.

•    In light of these developments, a large rally has been called for next Saturday in Stuy-Cove Park (22nd Street at the East River) to demonstrate tenant unity and cohesion and to discuss the rapidly changing situation and options. (Please see the flyer).

•    In J-51 news, Alex Schmidt, the attorney for the J-51 class, confirms that Tishman Speyer continues to deposit the rent differential of former Market Rate tenants into the special protected escrow account set up last March.

We expect no further J-51 updates until both sides have hammered out additional agreements.

LEARN MORE, CLICK HERE

Deer Oval Consearge Members.

Greeting Stuyvesaent Town residonts! We hope this newsletter finds you in good health and with the same enthusiasm the appeals court news found you last month! It sure does lift your spirits when the law for once works in YOUR favor!

Now that the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Ciiper Village are bankrupt and barely worth the toxic land they were constructed on, we your conserages know that we best turn up the value knob, get on the stick, and find some really cool sh*t for you to do because we could be the next to go!

With that being said...HAPPY HOLIDAYS! We have concocked some personal recomendations for activities that we like to partake in as we gear up for the holidaye season.Some acitivities have a conventional holiday flavor, while others are just fun stuff to do these last two frosty months of the yeer.

Now I know alot of yous are confused and write me and say 'Hey Manny, your email says 'your concierge's choice...IN YOUR COMMUNITY' but you are always suggesting weird stuff like Coney Island Clam Bakes. What gives?'

I guess it is pretty weird that we put together holiday to-do lists to get some of yous new tenants aquiainted with the neighborhood and then send you off to the five corners of the burroughs, requiring five or six train transfers and some rosetta stone experience. Here is why.

Manny and all of your other most valuable conscierges live knowwhere near stuyvesant town. In fact we are all under 25 and get excited when Old Navy sells chords for $10. But hey, please don't tell Abigail Miachael's! She's still mad about the $30,000 a month we spend especialy when she found out that we didnt spend it on dictionarees and writing clasis like we said!

This time we tried to stay local for our suggestions for you! So whether the holidays mean going green in the oval with George Hatzmann or talking a walking tour of Central Park with Mischa barton, we your conceirges know that you know that we know that you will have a great time! Just please don't ask Mischa too many questions or you will be getting a walking tour of Bellevue! Come see for yourself!

Manny,

Oval Consierge
America Lesure
Newark Airtport
Whiteny's spleef recipe

Via Smart Brief

NEW YORK-- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Fitch Ratings does not expect to take any negative rating actions following the transfer of the Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town (PCV/ST) loan to special servicing today. The $3 billion A-Note was transferred to CWCapital, as special servicer, due to the sponsors' request for relief. Details of the request for relief by Tishman Speyer Properties, LP and Blackrock Realty are not immediately available.

Fitch expected the transfer of the loan to special servicing as cash flow generated by the property remains insufficient to service the debt. Debt service reserves are expected to be depleted by the end of December. Fitch downgraded U.S. commercial mortgage backed security (CMBS) transactions containing portions of the PCV/ST loan on Aug. 28, 2009 and Oct. 30, 2009 based on the expected default of the loan and Fitch's estimate of value.

Fitch believes there will be many factors involved in the workout and ultimate recovery of the loan, including a possible modification, potential legislative changes to rent stabilization laws, commitment of the loan sponsors, the remaining seven-year term of the loan, and the low loan per unit ($267,213). (See Fitch Downgrades 3 CMBS Deals on Higher Peter Cooper/Stuy Town Losses, Oct. 30, 2009, available at 'www.fitchratings.com'.)

Fitch will continue to monitor the workout of the loan and adjust its modeled recognized losses as details become available. Pieces of the $3 billion pari passu PCV/ST loan are securitized in the following transactions:

--WBCMT 2007-C30;

--COBALT 2007-C2;

--ML-CFC 2007-5;

--ML-CFC 2007-6.

PCV/ST comprises 56 multi-story buildings, situated on 80 acres, and includes a total of 11,227 apartments. The loan sponsors, Tishman Speyer Properties, LP and BlackRock Realty, acquired the property with the intent of converting rent-stabilized units to market rents as tenants vacated the property; however, the conversion of units has since been determined to be illegal by the New York State Court of Appeals. In addition to the $3 billion securitized balance, there is an additional $1.5 billion of mezzanine debt held outside the trust.

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Fitch: Additional CMBS Actions Unlikely as Peter Cooper/Stuy Town Moves to Special Servicing [Smart Brief]

Via The New York Times

Early Tuesday, Suzanne Wasserman walked into the polling place on 18th Street at First Avenue in Manhattan, then voted in a flash, a straight Democratic ticket. And yes, she knew that it would take a colossal upset for her candidate, William C. Thompson Jr., to beat Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Still.

"Bloomberg represented this development gone wild," she said. "That seemed like a great idea when times were flush."

Ms. Wasserman lives in Stuyvesant Town, a place that seems to be headed for one of the greatest financial collapses in city history. A third term for Mr. Bloomberg may represent the triumph of gilded politics. But Stuyvesant Town and its adjacent development, Peter Cooper Village, are the places where money has lost, at least for a round.

Three years ago, the largest real estate deal in American history was made for the land and 110 buildings that make up Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper. The price was $5.4 billion. By themselves, the two developments, which stretch from 14th Street to 23rd Street east of First Avenue, would make a decent-size small town in many parts of the country. More than 11,000 apartments are home to about 25,000 people.

Under a mountain of debt, the new owners would need the rents to shoot up quickly, and need tenants with lower rents to move out at drastically higher rates than had been customary. "It could only be achieved by taking direct aim at many longtime, perfectly legitimate tenants, who were protected by the law," said Daniel R. Garodnick, a member of the City Council who grew up in Peter Cooper and still lives there.

Before the sale went through, a group of residents had assembled a bid for the property, with help from the city pension funds, but it was the lowest of three prices. The high bidder, Tishman Speyer, was led by Jerry Speyer, an ally of Mr. Bloomberg's.

Continue reading this article

I have a plan to make housing in New York City more affordable for all New Yorkers. (For full details of my plan, please visit www.thompson2009.com, click "Bill's Vision," and then click "Housing.")

A big part of my plan will be reversing Mike Bloomberg's aggressive hikes on rent regulated apartments. Since Republican Mike Bloomberg took office, his appointees have voted for rent increases totaling over 30%.

In light of the financial difficulties facing so many New Yorkers, I have called on the Rent Guidelines Board to freeze rents for two of the past three years. Unfortunately, almost every time, the Mayor's appointees voted for yet another rent increase.

As Mayor, I will appoint public members to the Rent Guidelines Board who understand that it is their responsibility to keep rents affordable. When I take office, seven of the nine Rent Guidelines Board members--including the Chairperson--will immediately be eligible to be replaced. I will replace these seven members, and make sure my appointees take into account not only owners' costs and expenses, but tenants' incomes as well.

I will also support enactment of the Rent Guidelines Board Reform Act. Currently, the Board uses only the Price Index of Operating Costs in determining rent guidelines, even though it releases both an annual Price Index and an Income and Expense Statement. The Rent Guidelines Board Reform Act requires that the price index as well as landlord income and expenses be considered.