On June 1st, one ABO member locked in at least a 7 percent energy cost saving over the next lowest fixed price available in the market by buying through the ABO-FS Energy Program. Other ABO members have until next Friday to enroll in the Fall electric and gas group contract being organized by the Program. 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.

Mayor de Blasio, Wednesday, announced another $350 million infusion of capital for Community Preservation Corporation construction and rehabilitation loans, including $40 million for City pension funds. The funds are reportedly settling for a 2.75 percent projected return in order to promote affordable housing.

Mayor de Blasio, who created the Worst Landlord list as Public Advocate, may top the list now that he is Mayor according to a Community Service Society report issued yesterday. The number of units in public housing with four or more maintenance deficiencies doubled between 2008 and 2011, the study noted, while the number of such units declined in the rent stabilized and market rate universe.

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz yesterday objected to the proposed 1700 units development at Astoria Cove, including 20 percent affordable units, because, among other concerns: “The projected rents for the proposed affordable housing would still be higher than what current local Astoria residents, who will bear the brunt of the impacts of the proposed project, could afford to pay…” Odd, considering there are no local residents on the site, currently zoned M-1 and occupied by a handful of underutilized factories and warehouses. Not to mention the issues raised by whether affordable housing is affordable.

Wondering about all the steps and forms for getting a New Building, making changes or alterations with a proper, or getting a Sidewalk Shed permit from the Department of Buildings? The construction company must submit an application to DOB with details of the construction job they would like to complete. The company is also required to get the Seismic Retrofitting Services completed in all properties. It is all made clear in new online instructions with links to required forms on the DOB  website. You can also find resources and answers to the general public regarding the construction process at builder-questions.com. Contact a custom home builder melbourne to discuss your plans for your home build and help you with the project.

ABO members have until August 8th to enroll in the Fall electric and gas group contract being organized by the ABO FS Energy Program. FS Energy has saved 300 buildings almost $13 million on energy costs, with rates averaging 16 percent below Con Ed on electricity. One 102 unit east side building, for example, saved more than $10,000 last year. Call program manager Thom Devlin at (646) 284-5230  for more information. We are also organizing a meeting the first week of August for anyone interested in  discussing the plan. Please call or email Dan Margulies at the ABO office if you are interested in participating.

The New York State Division of Homes and Community Renewal has announced that unified applications for funding under the Low Income Housing Credit program, Low Income Housing Trust Fund, Mitchell Lama, etc., will be available August 15th.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer issued an audit yesterday criticizing the City Housing Authority for not ensuring that contractors employed sufficient NYCHA residents, as required by law. NYCHA responded that they were placing trained people on every project.

A private investigator specializing in non-primary residence cases has been slapped with a cease and desist order by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, according to this morning’s Daily News. Schneiderman claimed the investigator  “coordinated with landlords to offer buyouts under circumstances meant to coerce tenants into vacating…”

Rick Chandler,  Assistant VP for Facilities at Hunter College and a Buildings Department veteran, was named Buildings Commissioner yesterday afternoon. It was the last major appointment of a de Blasio cabinet member involved in housing and construction, and reportedly after several other candidates refused the job.

DHCR issued a new lease renewal form and rent stabilization rider this week, required for all leases offered after October 1st. Owners can use the old or new forms until then.

ABO members have until August 8th to enroll in the Fall electric and gas group contract being organized by the ABO FS Energy Program. FS Energy has saved 300 buildings almost $13 million on energy costs, with rates averaging 16 percent below Con Ed on electricity. One 102 unit east side building, for example, saved more than $10,000 last year. Check out this website or call program manager Thom Devlin at (646) 284-5230  for more information. Anyone with no ESCO contract or contracts expiring over the next few month is eligible. ABO members are already enjoying the benefits on over 1,000 units. Are you?

Mayor de Blasio and other elected officials were out this week reminding workers to call in sick July 30th, or at least that they could under the City’s new paid sick leave law. Employers were supposed to notify all workers April 1st that they are entitled to paid leave if the company has five employees or more or unpaid leave if fewer, effective beginning the 30th. Did you comply?

Brooklyn. It is happening despite the City’s plans according to new reports. Mayor de Blasio, Wednesday, announced new investments  in linking downtown parks, creating a cultural business improvement district,  and creating street retail in city owned buildings. The same day, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership happily reported on the area’s tremendous growth since major rezoning in 2004.  Ironically, the growth was not the kind intended: the planners projected 4.5 million square feet of new class A office space and got 250,000. They projected 1,000 new housing units and got 5,000, with another 7,800 in the pipeline.

Finally, the perfect beach read for developers. The Furman Institute this week issued a report on The Price of Resiliency. Unfortunately, the shore looks like a bad bet with 5,000 apartment buildings in the 100 year flood plain, stuck between the rock of regulated or government subsidized rents and the hard place of rising federal flood insurance premiums. One proposed solution to rising waters–eliminating ground floor apartments–is unlikely to be popular with owners or housing advocates the report notes.

July is the month to Get It Done at Buildings Department borough meetings to approve or resolve objections on new building and type one alteration permits. The department is deploying teams to work personally with applicants while connected to the electronic permit Hub and get instant results. One thing that has not been done, however, is appointment of a new Buildings Commissioner…seven months into the new administration and counting.

Mayoral appointments, or the lack thereof, could also put a crimp in building plans that require Board of Standards and Appeals approval. Crains reports that resignations and personnel changes could make it difficult for the Board to have a quorum over the summer.

If you do build something it will probably be smaller. The census reports that new apartments have shrunk over the past decade and are at the smallest average square footage nationally and in major cities since 2002. Rents per square foot, however, are the highest since 1996. Single family homes, meanwhile, are still growing in size and not selling as well.

And, if you want to finance what you build, look to Asian insurance companies according to a CBRE report. Recent reforms of insurance company investment regulations in China, Taiwan, and Japan will unleash about $75 billion over the next five years for U.S. real estate…mostly focused on trophy markets such as New York.

Avanti Building Consultants and NYCB Engineering Group were indicted yesterday for allegedly falsifying site safety reports at forty building projects across the City.  Some of the inspections had the signature of a dead man, according to the indictment.

Crane operators could walk off the job after contract negotiations broke down earlier this week.

Historic districts and affordable housing don’t mix according to the latest report from the Real Estate Board of New York.  REBNY’s data show that throughout the five boroughs, 34,904 units of affordable housing were constructed between 2003 and 2012, with only 100 of those units built on landmarked property. Of the 100 units, 95 of them were built at Cedars/Fox Hall in the Longwood Historic District in the Bronx and the other 5 were part of a project on Historic Front Street built on land sold by the City.  Both projects relied on hefty subsidies.

The Municipal Art Society is more concerned with protecting historic skylines than affordable housing, so they developed an online tool to track air rights. It also works great for developers trying to figure out where to build. You can just click on a lot and see what rights are left. Click on all the lots on your block to analyze development potential.

Historic low rent guidelines of 1 and 2.75 percent for one and two year renewal leases were approved Monday night, as previously reported. Mayor deBlasio said he was disappointed that the one year guideline was not zero, but apparently has mixed feelings on the need for increases: Capital New York reported yesterday that he has frozen one rent in the two family house he owns since 2006 and socked the other tenant. The overall rent roll went up about 9.5 percent from 2011 to 2013 while cumulative one year guidelines, by contrast, went up about 6 percent. Planning Commission Chairman Carl Weisbrod named Purnima Kapur as Executive Director of the Commission this week, citing her experience developing the East New York plan that will lead off the Mayor’s zoning changes to encourage affordable housing. Kyle Kimball spoke to the ABO luncheon Wednesday about Economic Development Corporation efforts to promote projects ranging from Willets Point to Cornell Technion, but the first question was about getting ferry service to the Upper West Side. Kimball explained that longer routes were expensive. The Rockaway fast ferry requires a $36 subsidy per passenger on top of the fare. Not totally housing related, but interesting. The National Association of Home Builders scored a Supreme Court victory for multifamily developers this week in Utility Air Regulatory Group vs. EPA.  The Court held that EPA did not have the authority under the Clean Air Act to require preconstruction permits from apartment buildings for greenhouse gas emissions. The agency was trying to treat apartment  buildings like power plants. A $60,000 permit fee and $200,000 in project delay costs were predicted for a typical 50 unit building had the EPA rule gone into effect. And our State organization, the New York State Builders Association, lobbied successfully in Albany for legislation requiring notices to new single family home buyers that they could buy sprinkler systems as an option. Sprinkler manufacturers have been pushing for a building code requirement to install sprinklers in all new homes at builder expense. The bill now goes to the Governor.

The Rent Guidelines Board last night approved a 1 percent increase for one year renewal leases and 2.75 percent for two year leases effective October 1st. It was the lowest one year guideline in the history of rent stabilization and the lowest two year guideline since 1978 (when, in a peculiar twist, the one year guideline was higher). The decision lets the de Blasio administration claim that the deliberative process was fair despite the Mayor’s calls for a rent freeze, while lenders and investors know bupkis when they see it.

Kyle Kimball, president of the Economic Development Corporation, will be explaining the Mayor’s housing preservation goals at tomorrow’s ABO luncheon.  Don’t miss out. Click here to reserve online or call the ABO office now.

More insights into the City’s plan for rezoning East New York and the template for other neighborhood rezonings for housing development were reported this week…and the plan seems to be more mid-rise than high rise as maximum density is sacrificed for neighborhood context.

The Furman Center issued a new report on the demographics of Rent Stabilized housing, which was widely reported to show that stabilized tenants were poorer than market rate tenants. Equally interesting, however, was the borough breakdown on rents and rent changes.  Median market rents in the outer boroughs were not that much more than median stabilized/controlled rents. The median 2011 market rent in Brooklyn, for example, was $1330 vs. $1118 for regulated units. The Manhattan difference was huge, $2600 vs. $1283.  And while regulated rents citywide went up around 50 percent from 2002 to 2011, Manhattan market rents only went up about 14 percent.

Tenant crimes can come back to haunt owners. The City has moved to fine Silvershore Properties because the bagel shop in a building they bought last year was selling untaxed cigarettes.

But tenants may not suffer for their crimes. In the continuing Airbnb saga, a Housing Court judge has ruled they while a tenant renting their apartment out through Airbnb may be illegal, it is a curable offense and they cannot be evicted for it if they stop when caught.

Monday is the deadline for reserving space at the ABO luncheon June 25th with Kyle Kimball, president of the Economic Development Corporation.  Don’t miss out. Click here to reserve online or call the ABO office now.

The City Rent Guidelines Board held its first public hearing on a possible 0 percent guideline last night in the Bronx and a few dozen tenants showed up. It did not get much press, but cable television news had a report. Three more hearings are planned.

City Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod is taking steps to speed the project review process so that the ULURP clock can start earlier.

The City Council, meanwhile, has created a new ten person development review unit because “lawmakers said they want to kick-start development projects, and negotiate better deals with developers separately from the Department of City Planning.” It is not clear how the Council negotiating projects directly with developers will speed things along.

The City Economic Development Corporation has acquired one of the last remaining private properties in the 62 acre Willets Point Development site. Three billion dollars worth of apartments, hotels, stores, schools and parks have been on the drawing boards for a decade.

Hear what else the EDC is doing to implement  the Mayor’s Housing Plan at the ABO luncheon June 25th with Kyle Kimball, president of the Economic Development Corporation. Click here to reserve your place online or call the ABO office for information.

The U.S. Supreme Court this week decided in CTS Corp. vs. Waldburger that the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, intended to preempt State Statutes of Limitations on toxic torts did not preempt State Statutes of Repose. New York State, for example, has a ten year Statute of Repose on construction tort cases against engineers and architects.

Sometimes things just work. City Councilman Jimmy Vacca introduced a bill to required the Department of Design and Construction to provide residents and businesses 72 hours notice of any City construction that would disrupt traffic, parking,  or access; or sewer, electrical or telephone service and the Department decided to start doing it immediately.

On the other hand, Mayor de Blasio has failed twice to get a letter of no objection from the Department of Buildings for the use of a rental property he owns.  And, while he is rumored to be homing in on Anthony Borelli of Edison Properties as the new chairman of the Board of Standards and  Appeals, there is still no hint of a new Buildings Commissioner.

You can home in on the nitty-gritty of the Mayor’s Housing Plan at the ABO luncheon June 25th with Kyle Kimball, president of the Economic Development Corporation. Invitations are in the mail. Click here to reserve your place online or call the ABO office for information.

If you are building affordable housing with federal funds, HUD just issued alternative guidelines for complying with accessibility requirements. With limited exceptions, you can now just follow the Americans With Disability Act 2010 Standards instead of the Uniform Federal  Accessibility Standards.

And, if that sounds complicated, it may help explain consolidation in the real estate industry as builders, owners, and managers have to cope with complex systems. Greystar Real Estate Partners just acquired Riverstone Residential to create a management company with 385,000 units…more than double the next largest in the country.