Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Report: New York Observer publisher buys 5 East Village walk-ups

New York Observer publisher Jared Kushner, also the principal owner of Kushner Properties, has purchased a $53 million portfolio of walk-ups in the city, including five in the East Village.

According to Lois Weiss at the Post, this properties are:

• 267 E. 10th St.
• 435 E. 9th St.
• 311 E. 11th St. (Huh? This is the nice new Village Green Building)
• 311 E. 6th St.

Another building in the portfolio — at 99 E. 7th St. — will close next month, Weiss reported.

On Aug. 22, The New York Times reported that demand for and sales of walk-up buildings have "reached new highs recently." Per the article:

With rents rising, the fact that many Manhattan walk-up buildings have tenants with rent-regulated apartments offers landlords the possibility of a very large increase in profits when these units are deregulated and shift to market rates. There is also upside potential to raise rents in the market rate units if landlords renovate a walk-up building, many of which have not been modernized in decades.

[Image via Wikipedia]

12 comments:

pinhead said...

God help us if we're on his father-in-law's radar.

Anonymous said...

I read this article last week, and you've bolded the wrong part. This alarming trend does have broad long-term implications for the entire neighborhood (all tenants, small businesses and anyone who isn't young and extraordinarily wealthy), but market-rate tenants are the ones who are feeling the immediate effects of these sales.

Are these buyers hoping that rent-stabilized apartments will become market rate under their control? Sure. That's nothing new. But are they buying them because that's a distant possibility? No, definitely not. They don't plan to make their money from rent-stabilized units someday becoming unregulated. They plan to double their money next year by renovating and pushing market rent rates to the max.

For example, this: "Many of Manhattan’s walk-up buildings are also ripe for renovation, work that could allow for substantial rent increases, even among market rate apartments. The Silverstone Property Group, for example, recently acquired two buildings at 162 and 164 East 82nd Street and is completely renovating the common areas and the market rate units to increase the rent rolls."
"“It is very capital-intensive for the first two years or so. Then, hopefully, we will see a significant increase in rent,” Mr. Nussbaum said, adding that he acquires only buildings that have a minimum of 50 percent free-market apartments and where the leases are to expire within a year of acquisition"

If you read between the lines, that means buying the building where leases expire soon, then kicking market rate tenants out by 1. not renewing the lease or 2. asking for absurd rent increases that will effectively leave the tenants no choice but to leave but also no reason to complain (because after all they did "offer" a lease). After that, the units are renovated and the rent rolls as well as the value of the building are doubled.

Because of this trend, dozens of people will lose their homes this year and will be forced to move out of the neighborhood. At least, rent-stabilized tenants have rights. East Village rents were somewhat reasonable when compared to areas like SoHo and West Village, but I don't think that's going to be the case much longer.

nygrump said...

This guy is barely 30 years old. Talk about a pampered life.

from wikipedia
He graduated from ... Harvard University in 2003, where Kushner was admitted after his father made a $2.5 million donation to the university.[2]

glamma said...

Oy. VEY.

"They don't plan to make their money from rent-stabilized units someday becoming unregulated."

Let's see how they treat those rent-stabilized tenants.

There is a severe case of landlords not just ABUSING but also ENDANGERING and TERRORIZING rent-regulated tenants, ESPECIALLY those most vulnerable like the elderly. The big landlords in the east village actually circulate their tactics on how to drive these poor people out of their homes. I find this absolutely despicable and lament that there are so few groups or agencies who care to defend these tenants, or are equipped to do so.

Kushner better watch his ass.

Anonymous said...

Isn't he married to Ivanka Trump??

Kurt said...

"Kushner better watch his ass."

Why does glamma always feel it necessary to threaten people. If you saw Kushner of David Shwimmer of any of the others you threaten, what would you do? Attack them?

tourist said...

i wanna riot.

we$tville ea$t said...

rent stabilization needs to be repealed in albany.. dont be surprised when it actually happens like everywhere else.. the system is abused more than actually helps tenants.. the fact that you can will a controlled apartment is absurd

Anonymous said...

To say that the rent stabilization laws need to be appealed due to flagrant abuse of the system was spoken like a self absorbed jerk.

The housing crisis in NYC still exists today and that is the basis of the law. Ask the million plus families who have it. Would you also abolish the NYC housing projects? Think of what you could make on them going private.

I live on East 6th and my walk up was sold one year ago and it followed a pattern of buyouts, force-outs, and refusal to do repairs (or even respond to) the non-market tenants. For the sake of what is absurd, the market rent for an renovated apt. in this building is now $48,000 a year.

Fortunately, you do not make the laws - just whine about them.




50-54-58 E 3rd St said...

And with every passing day I care less and less that I will be moving out of the East Village in a couple months. Will love coming back to a few choice bars and restaurants, but fuck living here anymore. I'm tired of giving my money to douchebag kids.

Ken from Ken's Kitchen said...

What is absurd is that un-regulated tenants in NYC have absolutely no rights.

How NYC's rent regulation system has been allowed to deteriorate while under the thumb of Albany pols is a testament to why home rule has to be returned to NYC. That means repealing 1971's Urstadt Law (which took away NYC's power to pass local rent laws that are any stronger than the state's). Every middle class tenant in the city should be fighting for Urstadt's repeal. Until repeal, the real estate lobby will continue to have its way -- as long as there are State Senate majority GOPers without renters in their upstate districts who will take busloads of campaign cash from downstate real estate to f*ck NYC tenants.

Something you can do about that right now. Send some $$ ($5, $10, whatever) to Cecilia Tkaczyk. She's running against millionaire real estate developer George Amedore for the 46th State Senate district (encompasses Albany and surrounding area). Amedore is a guaranteed vote against NYC renters. Tkaczyk is the former Exec Director of the Neighborhood Preservation Coalition of NY, former statewide advocacy director for the NYS Supportive Housing Network, a former NYS Tenants + Neighbors Board member and was senior policy analyst for Senate Dems in 2009-10. She has the endorsement of Liz Krueger's "No Bad Apples" PAC as well as the WFP and Tenants PAC, The NY League of Conservation Voters and others.
More here: http://www.ceciliatkaczyk.com/news/

Pumpkin Patch said...

Thanks Ken, good info.