The City Economic Development Corporation this week issued an RFP for a 1.65 million square foot development, including 1,000 units of housing, on the Lower East Side. The Seward Park site is the largest contiguous development parcel south of 96th Street.
The City council approved a bill giving HPD the power to issue an order to correct any underlying condition existing in a building that has caused or is causing a violation. The owner would have four months to address the condition, such as, say, pointing where there is continuous seepage into an apartment wall. After that the City could fix it and bill the owner. The law leaves a lot to the subjective judgment of inspectors. HPD has six months to write rules.
Governor Cuomo touched on a few real estate issues in his State of the State. He proposed spending $1 billion of existing program funds to build or rehab 14,000 units, including 8,700 existing Mitchell Lama apartments. He proposed amending the Human Rights Law to bar discrimination based on source of income to protect Section 8 tenants. He also announced creation of the Recreate-NY Smart Home and Home Buyout Programs to either rebuild houses devastated by Sandy to withstand storms or buy out homeowners to create parks and other storm barriers. No details yet.
George McDonald, founder of the Doe Fund and longtime ABO member, officially declared his candidacy for Mayor yesterday.
The families of children with blood lead levels as low as 5 micrograms per deciliter, a level that was considered normal twenty years ago, are getting letters from the City Department of Health warning them of the danger of lead poisoning. ABO member Lee Wasserman of LEW Corp., notes that even if DOH or HPD don’t consider these levels worth an inspection, they could be used in liability cases years in the future. Please let the ABO office know if your tenants notify you of receiving such a letter or you get a copy.
Still haven’t reserved your seat for our January 29th Awards luncheon? Call or email today, or buy a ticket online here.