Tenants Flex Muscles

Via WSJ

Tenants groups in New York are notoriously disorganized, but that isn't true about the one representing tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

The apartment complex is the focus of one of the most high-profile defaults in the commercial-property downturn. With an eye toward joining a bid for the property, the tenants group has lined up some big names as advisers, including white-shoe law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and financial advisory Moelis & Co. Residents in more than half of the 10,500 occupied apartments have signed "unity pledges" to give the group their backing, as it pursues a plan that could allow residents to buy their units at discounts or remain as rent-stabilized tenants.

The tenants group has met with more than 40 potential partners and lenders to come up with a bid for The property is being turned over by a partnership led by Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Inc. to creditors after it defaulted on $4.4 billion in debt.

"As we build support for a tenant-led plan, many of the major players in real estate and finance are seeking to partner with us," said New York City Councilman Dan Garodnick, who lives in the complex.

By Lux News on April 23, 2010
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If You Want Rent Stabilization To Survive Beyond June 2011, Fight For It Now! Get On the Bus April 27th!

Via The ST / PCV Tenants Association

Join Your Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town neighbors on an all-day free bus trip to Albany!

If we don't convince lawmakers to renew and strengthen rent laws this year, we may not have the chance next year. Big real estate money is pouring into Albany to make certain we don't have that chance.
 
That's why tenant advocates, too, will be pouring into Albany on Tuesday, April 27th, to urge legislators to act now. Our delegation will meet with our Senator Tom Duane and Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh and join them in asking their legislative colleagues to renew the Rent Regulations a year early, repeal Vacancy Decontrol, and stop landlords from charging for Major Capital Improvements forever.

The Tenants Association is looking to fill three comfortable coach buses, one sponsored by Councilmember Dan Garodnick, another by Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh.

Dan will hold a rolling Town Hall meeting on his bus, and in Albany, we will strategize with Brian and Tom Duane and meet with other legislators whose votes we need in order to preserve and strengthen vital tenant protections in our neighborhood and throughout the city.

DATE: TUESDAY, APRIL 27
DEPARTURE TIME: 7:15 AM
RETURN: About 12 hours later.
PLACE: East Side of First Avenue and 18th Street
Continue reading If You Want Rent Stabilization To Survive Beyond June 2011, Fight For It Now! Get On the Bus April 27th!.
By Lux News on April 23, 2010
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Pedro Espada Jr. Accused Of Looting Clinic By Cuomo

Via Huff-Po

PEDRO-ESPADA.jpg
The majority leader of New York's Senate is accused of siphoning $14 million from his government-funded clinic in the Bronx for lavish restaurant meals, trips to Las Vegas and his own campaign, according to a civil lawsuit announced Tuesday by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

The suit filed against Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. by fellow Democrat Cuomo covers five years of spending, the last two of which Espada spent as a senator representing the Bronx.

The suit also names 19 other current and former officials of Espada's Comprehensive Community Development Corp., known locally as Soundview and operating on about $12 million annually, mostly from state and federal government funds.

Espada refused to comment on the specifics of the suit, except to call it a "litany of mischaracterizations and falsehoods," and say that he would address the issues in court. Espada also accused Cuomo of wiretapping his home and of using the lawsuit against him as political payback for the Bronx politician's role in a Senate coup last summer.

"These actions are politics as usual," Espada said. "A steamroller approach to using the power of one's office, an office ... whose purpose is to protect the people and not to make unfounded assertions and accusations."

He also accused Cuomo of encouraging the partisan political coup - which froze New York state government last summer for more than a month - just to harm Gov. David Paterson's chance in the fall election. Cuomo is widely expected to run for governor this fall but has not announced his candidacy.

A spokesman for Cuomo declined to comment on Espada's accusations.

Continue reading "Pedro Espada Jr. Accused Of Looting Clinic By Cuomo" @ The Huffington Post
By Lux News on April 20, 2010 | 11 Comments
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The Man Who Would Rule Stuy Town

Via The New York Observer

So he is now engaged in a lawsuit against the servicer, CW Capital, alleging it is acting in its own interest--special servicers' contracts generally do not have incentives that are aligned with the riskier investors--and not in the best interests of the holders of the bonds.

"They can't just willy-nilly run off and make their own judgment about this," Kathy Patrick, an attorney for Mr. Tepper at the Texas firm Gibbs & Bruns, said of CW Capital. "It's hundreds of millions of dollars that are wholly avoidable if the property is restructured appropriately."

This is considered a tough fight given that the contract with CW Capital gives it broad authority over how to proceed. This, effectively, is the argument of CW Capital, saying that it is well within its rights, and the contract does not even allow Appaloosa to bring legal action unless many other investors join with it.

Regardless, Mr. Tepper has already won, to a certain extent. Throughout the sector, investors have become far more bullish on the future of CMBS than they were a year ago, particularly in the past few weeks. Anyone who bought CMBS bonds a year ago, particularly the less risky slices, would easily have seen double-digit gains (Mr. Tepper bought both risky and safe slices of the Stuyvesant Town bonds).

Mr. Tepper's aim, of course, is transparent: He simply wants the value of Stuyvesant Town to return to at least $3 billion, the initial value of the mortgage. That way, he can realize a maximum return on his investments.

Continue reading "The Man Who Would Rule Stuy Town" @ The New York Observer
By Lux News on April 20, 2010
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Ah, Lease Renewal Time

A Lux Living reader and Stuyvesant Town inmate tenant writes us because it's getting close to lease renewal time and he'd like to know what Tish-Spey is offering to other tenants. He writes:

"I am a market rate tenant and recently received my lease renewal and I realized there is no where to communicate with other people in my position to see if Tishman is offering similar deals to everyone and more importantly whether they are possibly accepting lower rents than what they are offering.  To give you an idea of what they gave me:

Market Rent  was was about 3,000 per the lease, but I actually pay $2500 with two free months amortized over the course of the lease.

I had been told by the lawyers representing that the class that if it had remained stabilized my rent would be about $2,550.  Based on the rent control board's 3% increase for leases signed before 9/30/10 my rent should be $2,600 for a one year renewal.  TIshman has proposed $2,700 for a one year lease and $2,800 for a two year lease."

Are other Market Rate tenants being offered the same rate and if so, have you been successful at negotiating a better price?
By Lux Living on April 14, 2010 | 257 Comments
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Stuy Town's Leaf Blowers in Action



Both long time Stuy Town sufferers and Lux Living readers know all too well about Stuyvesant Town's infamous 'Wake Up Service' where a lone employee chases a single leaf around with a really loud leaf blower for 45 minutes first thing in the morning. 

Well, they are back. Tenants of 447 / 449 East 14th Street were woken up bright and early today by a Tishman Speyer employee who accomplished nothing more than blasting more pollen back into the air. After 30 time-wasting minutes, a bitter Stuy Spy ran outside with his Flip cam to capture the noise pollution / unproductive use of time.
By Lux Living on April 14, 2010 | 7 Comments
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CalPERS eyes ban on rent-control conversion investments

Via Pensions & Investments

CalPERS' investment committee at its meeting next week will consider banning investments in real estate projects that eliminate rent-controlled apartments, according to the meeting's agenda.

The $209.3 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, lost $500 million in an investment in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in New York in 2006 in a failed plan to convert subsidized rental apartments to market-level rentals.

CalPERS wrote off its entire investment after lead investors Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock defaulted on mortgages for the large Manhattan apartment complexes. The buyers had purchased the complexes for $5.4 billion. Their plan to repay the debt depended on rent on regulated apartments being raised to market levels.

CalPERS staff says in the agenda item for the April 19 meeting that the new policy would not prevent the system from investing in projects that tear down rent-regulated apartments as long as they are replaced with new rent-regulated units.

The ban would be a victory for tenants groups that have called on CalPERS to ensure that its real estate policies do not adversely affect low- and middle-income tenants.

Legislation introduced in the California Assembly earlier this year would ban CalPERS from making similar investments. The bill is still pending, but has not been heard by committee yet.

"Affordable housing is an important aspect of CalPERS real estate investment strategy," CalPERS investment staff is quoted in the agenda as saying in support of the legislation.

CalPERS has more than $13 billion invested in such real estate projects.

By Lux News on April 14, 2010 | 9 Comments
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Trepp: March CRE Loan Delinquencies in CMBS Rise To 7.61%

Via iMarketNews.com

The delinquency rate for commercial real estate loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities real estate delinquencies rose 89 basis points to 7.61% in March, Trepp analytics reported Thursday.

"March data threw cold water on any notion that CMBS delinquencies might be nearing their peak," the commercial CMBS and commercial mortgage data provider said in a monthly report.

Trepp indicated a $3 billion Stuyvesant Town loan contributed for nearly half of the increase in commercial loans that are more than 30 days delinquent -- but even without the Stuyvesant loan being placed into foreclosure, the increase in delinquent commercial loans more than doubled.

"Weakening commercial real estate and construction loans continue to drive bank failures. The institutions with the highest concentration of at-risk banks are in the boom/bust markets of Florida, Georgia and California and the rust belt markets of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan," the report said.

Trepp's March forecasts are currently projecting 200 bank failures in 2010, which would be a significant increase from the 140 bank failures in 2009, and the 25 bank failures in 2008.

"More recently, weakness has extended to the Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon. Other areas for concern are the Carolinas and Colorado and, to a lesser extent, New York and Pennsylvania," the report added.

Property Types -- Percentage of Loans that are more than 30 day delinquent

Mar-10 Feb-10 Jan-10 Dec-09 Sep-09 Mar-09

Industrial 5.39 4.75 4.54 3.98 2.97 1.43 Lodging 16.89 15.65 15.32 13.87 6.72 2.19 Multifamily 13.19 9.87 9.71 9.27 7.05 3.86 Office 4.73 4.33 3.90 3.42 2.70 1.27 Retail 6.03 5.74 5.69 5.50 4.41 2.11


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By Lux News on April 7, 2010 | 5 Comments

Go Green Stuy Town!

stuy-town-going-green.jpgDear Stuyvisent Town residots,

Now that the most glorious of all holiday seesons is behind us and we no longer have to hunt rabbits carrying eggs or look up to the heavens for a myssterious disapearing corpse we can move on to more festive of hilidays. Hows aboot Earth Day!

That's write, Earth Day is the one day of the year where we try to by kind to our bud Mother Nature and show her that no, we don't want her tripping off her axis and killing us all with quakes and teramisunamies. So it's time to Go Green! 'But Manny, Stuyvesant Town has already gone brown, now we have to go green? This sounds like work!' yous say. Well let me tell you it was never Oval Consseeairjez intention for the beloved Stuy Town to go brown, after all we were the first to offer top quality dog walking service for your beloved four legged friends which included free poop pick up. But it seems some residonts would rather let their furry BFFs run free and scat about the complex. It sure is a mess but what great fertilzer! Manny heard Tishman Speyers couldn;t use real fertilizer on the majestic Oval because they feered the disgruntled tenants woulde use it for cataclysmic activities. 

But I regress. Your most enabled conseriges have found s a  myriad of ways for you to take advantage of earth day from using the portipotty by the ping pongs to kicking doog poop so it's more evently distubuted you will have no shortage of ways to Go Green!

Manny
Oval Conserihe
American Leison
Newark Aiprort
Enjoying Fresca al fresco 
By Lux Living on April 7, 2010 | 25 Comments
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Stuy Town Hillbillies

stuy-town-hillbillies.jpg"Mornin' Ma. I reckon' I don't have the time to learn me that fan-see Mac Gray dryin' machine 'cause I'm already late for mah possum skinnin' class. Guess I'll hafta hang my drawers out this here windah to dry um up real good in the sun. I sure as heck can't wait for the pig wrestlin' E-vent at the Oval this week. Ima takin' first prize!"
By Lux Living on April 7, 2010 | 72 Comments
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