We’re Moving. And more! ABO is moving next week to 5 Hanover Square, Suite 1605, New York, NY 10004. Phone and fax numbers remain the same. We will be co-locating with Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) and working more closely with CHIP to coordinate programs important to builders, owners, and managers.
Also, mark your calendars for these seminars: Next Friday, September 26th, ABO Executive Director Dan Margulies participates in a forum discussing land use and affordability from 6-9 p.m.at the Kimmel Center at NYU, 60 Washington Square South; October 7th, ABO members are welcome free to a CHIP seminar, Affordable Housing 101, from 8:30 – 11 a.m. at the CUNY Graduate Center Elebash Recital Hall, 1st Floor, 365 Fifth Avenue. RSVP to rsvp@chipnyc.org;Then, on October 29th, ABO is asking “What Price Energy? Buying It, Saving It, Making It” in a program at noon during the NYARM Expo at the Hotel Pennsylvania on 7th Avenue and 33rd St. Come learn how to save money buying energy, how to get others to pay for saving it, and whether it pays to try to make your own. More details soon.
Mayor de Blasio highlighted energy this week announcing the winners of the annual BigApps award for using City databases. One winner was Heat Seek NYC which will map 311 heat complaints online and give tenants wireless temperature sensors to automatically document heat failures and put the buildings on the map.
In other energy news, the EPA this week announced a new Energy Star certification for existing multifamily buildings. Owners who are using the EPA Portfolio Manager to comply with City benchmarking rules anyway should easily be able to check to see if they are entitled to the Energy Star rating and bragging rights that come with it. Anecdotally, new green buildings sell out and rent up faster so it is worth checking.
Also in Washington, the Senate last night gave final approval to a bill that would eliminate condominiums from reporting requirements under the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA) which had resulted in much litigation and many broken contracts since the 2008 crash.
A State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan this week barred the City Division of Human Rights from submitting evidence on behalf of a tenant trying to get damages for his landlord’s rejection of a companion dog. In a long and tortuous case (NYLJ subscription required) the tenant’s doctor had changed his diagnosis of the tenant’s issues several times and most recently said the dog was not necessary now but that removing it might affect the tenant’s state of mind in the future. The Court basically said that the Division could not add anything to the arguments except speculation.