Local hiring preferences will pose another hurdle to developers trying to build housing under two initiatives by Mayor de Blasio revealed this week.  The Mayor announced that the Build It Back Program to restore neighborhoods hit by Hurricane Sandy will make hiring workers from storm-damaged neighborhoods a priority. The RFP for phase 2 of the Hunters Point development “included a section that requires responders to lay out an employment-opportunities hiring plan that provides opportunities for very-low income city residents, the homeless, those with criminal records, people on public assistance, custodial single parents or those who have participated in a vocational program for non-native English speakers ” The provision is expected to be repeated for future projects.

The State Court of Appeals heard oral arguments this week on whether a stabilized lease was property that could be sold in a bankruptcy estate or whether it was exempt as a form of local public assistance benefit. The bankruptcy referee argued that public assistance involved a cash payment and means test while the State Attorney General and Mayor de Blasio submitted an amicus arguing that a rent stabilized lease is “‘assistance’ provided to a ‘local’ population by a ‘public’ entity…” For copies of case documents, search here for the party name Santiago-Monteverde.

The Attorney General and Mayor also delivered a one-two punch on Airbnb. Yesterday, the AG issued a report showing that 72 percent of bookings violated the multiple dwelling law and that 36 percent of the income went to a handful of illegal hotel operators. This morning, the Daily News reported that the City had gotten an injunction against the owners of two south midtown apartment buildings allegedly operating as illegal hotels.

October 29th, ABO is asking “What Price Energy? Buying It, Saving It, Making It” in a program at 12:30 during the NYARM Expo at the Hotel Pennsylvania on 7th Avenue and 33rd St. Speakers include:

Thomas Devlin, ABO FS Energy Buying Group

Ahmed Ibrahim, Ecosystem

David Singer, Original Energy

Arthur Rosenfield, Red Apple Group

They will be talking about how you can save money, so be sure to attend.

The New York State Attorney General’s office this morning released a memorandum outlining how an 80/20 developer could sell the market rate units in a project prior to benefits expiration, as long as “permanent affordability” for the low-income units could be maintained. The definition of what permanent affordability means is sketchy.

The demand for affordable housing, however, is clear. 53,000 applicants are vying for 89 subsidized apartments at El Barrio Artspace in East Harlem, and HPD officials say that is “on par” with the number of applications for most NYC Connect Housing lotteries.

East New York, Broadway Junction, and parts of Flatbush in Brooklyn, and the Bronx waterfront are the most likely places for upzoning for housing construction, according to interviews with Borough presidents in the latest Real Deal Magazine. Brooklyn’s Eric Adams and the Bronx’s Ruben Diaz were the only BPs to suggest sites where higher density would be welcome.

DEP has announced a new round of grants to help property owners develop green roofs and install porous pavers in open space.

Is the left coast leading the way again? The San Francisco Board of Supervisors this week passed legislation that would legalize short term rentals in residential apartments, a la Airbnb, effective in February. There are some caveats: only primary residents can offer the rentals (not investor owners), they have to be registered and insured, the buildings cannot have any violations, they have to pay lodging taxes, and rent controlled tenants cannot charge more than their rent.

There was also a constitutional challenge to one aspect of San Francisco rent control heard this week. Owners hoping to withdraw from the rental business in San Francisco cannot evict tenants without paying them off. A local landlord and the Pacific Legal Foundation are arguing that the mandated payments are excessive and put an unconstitutional burden on private property owners for the benefit of other individuals without any proven need. Just like, for example, New York’s demolition policy under rent stabilization and rent control.

Mayor de Blasio, Tuesday, signed an executive order raising the minimum wage for employees of commercial tenants in projects with more than $1 million in City subsidies. Analysts expect the order will affect about 18,000 workers, mostly in retail businesses, up from 1200 under the existing Living Wage law. The order sets the Living Wage to $13.13 without benefits or $11.50 with benefits, subject to increases in inflation.

State Senator Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) introduced legislation this week to impose a new property tax on single family homes, co-ops, and condominiums not occupied as a primary residence with a fair market value of $5 million or more. The bill targets rich foreigners but would also cover any area resident  with a pied-a-terre and investor owners.

The State Division of Homes and Community Renewal has released a new RT-P8 Lease Renewal form containing a Sprinkler notice required beginning in December, and also updated its Air Conditioner surcharges , effective October 1st.

HPD this week created a new unit to manage the Mayor’s plans for mandatory inclusionary zoning, and announced hiring a California consulting company to help identify the  best neighborhoods for upzoning.

As an ABO member you can get 10 percent off hotel stays booked through Expedia for you and your employees. Register through mynpp.com listing your ABO affiliation and then you can offer the benefit to anyone in your company. Get additional discounts from Staples, Airgas, Sherwin Williams and others as well.

ABO members are welcome free to a CHIP seminar, Affordable Housing 101, from 8:30 – 11 a.m. this coming Tuesday at the CUNY Graduate Center, Elebash Recital Hall, 1st Floor, 365 Fifth Avenue. RSVP to rsvp@chipnyc.org

October 29th, ABO is asking “What Price Energy? Buying It, Saving It, Making It” in a program at 12:30 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.

The City Council, Tuesday, doubled potential fines for landlords harassing tenants to $10,000 and provided that HPD post the names of property owners convicted of harassment on its website. The legislation expands a 2008 law under which there have been 44 findings of harassment, many involving small owners who defaulted on hearings. Mayor de Blasio is expected to sign the bill.

Incentives for solar electric installations were extended and increased by legislation signed by Governor Cuomo, Wednesday. Owners will be entitled to tax abatements equal to the lesser of 5 percent of the cost, the property tax due, or $62,500.

Late last week Mayor de Blasio announced a 35-year plan to reduce energy use in City buildings. The plan includes incentives for private property owners and training opportunities for managers. The most immediate impact  on private building owners  will likely be proposed legislation to expand the requirement to file energy benchmarking reports to an additional 16,800 buildings between 25,000 and 50,000 square feet.

Mark your calendars for these seminars:

Tonight, 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;

October 29th, ABO is asking “What Price Energy? Buying It, Saving It, Making It” in a program at 12:30 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.

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.

Carl Weisbrod, chairman of the City Planning Commission, says every request for a zoning variance will trigger an affordable housing mandate. Weisbrod told an audience at New York Law School that the administration will propose formal requirements by the end of the year, but that they will apply “interim mandates” on a project basis. “You can’t build one unit unless you  build your share of affordable housing,” he said.

The difficulty of building anything new may partially explain the surge in alterations and renovations reported this week by the NY Building Congress. New York City’s private and public building owners initiated $5.7 billion worth of alteration and renovation projects in 2013, a 5 percent increase from 2012, when A&R starts totaled $5.4 billion, and a 25 percent increase from 2011 ($4.6 billion). Residential work totaled $870 million in 2013, and residential A&R spending in the first half of 2014 equaled the total for all of 2012.

The New York Times reported this morning that HPD is rescinding Section 8 vouchers because of a $37 million shortfall in federal aid.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer issued a report, Monday, finding that public housing had a lot of maintenance deficiencies, regulated housing had fewer, market rate housing fewer still, and owner occupied housing the fewest overall. Duh. The numbers also show that the percentage of units with problems in each category hasn’t changed much over time.

There was a primary election, Tuesday, but not much changed for incumbents. The clear winner in New York State was Jeff Klein, leader of the Independent Democratic Conference who will likely be the kingmaker for State Senate leadership in January.

Is the tech bubble in real estate over? Zillow is buying Trulia for $3.5 billion and start-ups  Cozy, Floored, and Honest Buildings have raised millions in venture capital. But one analysis shows 100 such companies getting funding in 2012 and only about 25 in 2013.

Well, that stinks. At least if you live in Koreatown or Greenwood Heights. Not so great in Vinegar Hill or St. Albans either. Brickunderground had someone crunch the odor complaints from 311 calls to find the smelliest neighborhoods where no odor elimination projects have worked to-date. The good news is that if you are renting apartments on Roosevelt Island or in Starret City you can brag about how sweet it is.

Another data project identifies the counties where you might want to advertise to attract renters and buyers. The Census Bureau now lets you select a county on an interactive map to find out where people are moving to or from over different time periods. From 2008 to 2011, for example,  16,302 people moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn and 12,942 moved the other way. About 6,000 more Brooklynites moved to Queens, however, than the other way around. Nationally, as one would expect, more people from New York went to Florida and California counties than anywhere else, but almost as many moved here from Los Angeles as went there, while only about half as many moved from Miami as migrated to it.

Is a stabilized lease an asset in bankruptcy? That is the issue before the New York State Court of Appeals where politicians and tenant leaders are protesting that a bankruptcy trustee sold a landlord the succession rights to a tenant’s lease (the tenant gets to stay for life with no rent increase). A federal appeals court punted the decision to New York courts to decide, among other things, if a rent stabilized lease is “local public assistance benefit” exempt from the bankruptcy estate.

September is time to get your free tickets to the NAHB International Builders Show January 20-22nd in Las Vegas. More than 1,000 exhibitors will be on hand. Early registrants get free tickets, free tickets for a spouse, and discounted conference fees.

What is the competition up to? Nancy Packes gave The Real Deal a neat interactive map of rental and condo buildings in the pipeline for Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn showing where 12-14,000 units a year are planned for the next several years.

Let us hope those units are built legally. An internal audit by the Buildings Department reported this week that nine out of ten plans for new buildings or renovations fail to comply with thirty year old Energy Code standards.

At least there is a chance that new developments will be assessed legally. The Appellate Division, second department, this week found in Better World Real Estate vs. NYC Dept. of Finance for a two-family home builder who filed an article 78  against an assessment that incorrectly identified his property as  Class 2A instead of Class 1, causing a jump in taxes from $8,300 to more than $60,000.  The Finance Department argued that the property owner’s sole remedy was a tax appeal which was time barred. The Court held that the issue was a clerical error or error of description subject to an article 78.

ABO is reorganizing its operations, about which more will be announced shortly, but in the meantime our capable office manager and bookkeeper, Schamoannah Gillespie, is looking for a new position. All her documents are up to date, including her afp police check. Please contact the ABO office if you would like to get a resume or contact her.

The New York State Builders Association is inducting ABO member Michael Fazio into its Hall of Fame at a gala in Hauppauge September  11th, following the Long Island Builders Institute golf outing at Wind Watch Golf and Country Club. Mike is a past President of NYSBA and our rep on the NYSBA and NAHB boards. Check the upcoming events listings at NYSBA.com for dinner and golf registration.

Figuring out where and how Mayor de Blasio is going to convince neighborhoods to allow higher density development may not be so easy. The Housing Development Corporation reopened its Request for Proposals for a consultant to work on the problem after apparently only getting two responses to its first call. The new deadline for applicants is August 28th.

A housing manager is going to jail for a year and day for taking bribes from tenants to jump a Section 8 housing waiting list. Turns out it is a federal crime.

The New York City Housing Authority is running a $77 million dollar deficit this year and needs $18 billion in capital improvements, according to a New York Times report this week. Turns out that one problem with subsidized housing is not enough subsidies, which could put a crimp in the Mayor’s affordable housing plans, according to the article.

Subsidies of a different sort made news on the west coast, where, according to the Wall Street Journal, mobile homes in Malibu are selling for millions. The article failed to mention one big reason for the high prices besides the ocean views: rent controlled parking spaces for the trailers. By one estimate a couple of years ago, the mobile home parks assessed at $11 million would be assessed at $500 million if they were decontrolled.

The Building Congress quarterly construction outlook out this week forecast record spending of $10.2 billion on housing construction in New York City this year. But the 20,000 new units predicted are only two thirds the number produced annually between 2005 and 2008, which cost a lot less.

NYSERDA is hosting a tour of multifamily energy conservation methods on site at 330 MacDougal Street, Brooklyn, Thursday, September 4th, from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. The new building features modular construction, heat recovery ventilation, energy star equipment, and solar power. See it all in action and find out how the government helped pay for it.

Ever wonder how someone can mess up replacing a toilet? NAHB’s Home Innovation Research Lab is looking for interested plumbers, contractors, and building owners to help develop a standard for certifying Plumbing Fixture Replacement Technicians.

HPD released more details this week on a Request For Proposals to develop a mixed use property with between 100 and 250 apartments in the Main Street, Flushing area. Responses are due October 10th.

That would be a boost for Queens, the only borough where new residential building permits fell year to year and quarter to quarter in the first three months of 2014, according to a Furman Center report. Citywide, new building permits were down from the last quarter of 2013, but up from a year ago, and 40 percent of the new units planned are in Brooklyn.

Seems like more and more property owners are worried about Hurricane Season, according to the New York Observer. Existing properties are buying removable flood barriers, moving mechanicals, buying generators and reconfiguring entrances. And new buildings are incorporating all that and more.  The season runs from June 1st to November 30th, but tends to get busier in the fall.

The Department of Buildings is running two more training sessions on new buildings codes in September. Revisions, effective Oct. 1st, affect excavations, demolition, site housekeeping, concrete formwork safety, sidewalk sheds, safety nets, adjoining property protection, site safety at major buildings, rigging, and scaffold safety.

What do those codes cost? The National Association of Homebuilders this week released a study on the effects of regulations and fees adding $883 to the cost of construction, which they calculated added $1,000 to the selling price on average. The bottom line in the New York metro area was that every $1,000 increase in home prices made homes less affordable to 5,742 households.

Today is technically the deadline to enroll in the Fall electric and gas group contract being organized by the ABO -FS Energy Program. If you do not have time to call, have someone from your office get on this now. FS Energy has saved 300 buildings almost $13 million on energy costs, with rates averaging 16 percent below Con Ed on electricity. Check out this website or call program manager Thom Devlin at (646) 284-5230  for more information. Today.