An interactive map showing the percentage of units deregulated in every building since 2007; the number of building permits issued for each building since 2013; and buildings purchased in 2015 for more than the average price per unit in a neighborhood was released Wednesday by the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development. ANHD believes he data points to neighborhoods where the poor are threatened with displacement, although industry and City officials say re-investment in property is essential to maintain housing for all income levels.
Meanwhile, in another blow to the Mayor’s efforts to encourage affordable housing development, Phipps Houses has abandoned its plan to build 209 affordable units on a parking lot in Sunnyside, without displacing anyone, because of opposition by neighbors and the local Councilman.
The City administration did score a victory of sorts, however, with the Council seeming ready to accept a precedent setting Planning Department ruling that Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning does not apply to a Chelsea project where the air rights of adjacent properties were reconfigured to permit a condo development without adding units subject to affordability requirements.
Developers’ and contractors’ associations are at odds over the discovery that the Building Contractors Association, which is supposed to represent contractors negotiating with labor unions, helped fund the union campaign for prevailing wages on 421a projects that helped kill the incentive program last Spring.
The apartments that do get built in New York are smaller, according to Bloomberg News. Part of the shrinkage is due to a higher percentage of studio and one bedroom units being built, but even those are shrinking. Six years ago, 22% of studios and one bedrooms in New York and San Francisco were under 600 square feet. Now 29% are smaller.