Page 4 - New York Cooperator February 2020

4 THE COOPERATOR — FEBRUARY 2020 COOPERATOR.COM Thursday, February 27, 2020 9th Annual Real Estate Women’s Forum New York Academy of Sciences, 7 World Trade Center, New York, NY 12:15 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Real Estate Women’s Forum (REWF) New York brings together leaders in commercial and investment real estate, emphasizing the achievements, capabilities, and thought lead- ership of women who are active real estate developers, investors, owners, and opera- tors. This year’s conference includes a slate of panels on leadership, development and con- struction trends, emerging innovations and technology, as well as finance and investment outlook in light of recent industry changes. We also host private peer-to-peer roundtables for select leaders. We’ve added more network- ing time to the program as well. REWF New York 2020 follows a morning pro- gram (6th annual New York Construction & Development Forum) at the same venue. Each conference requires a separate registration. Contact us if you’d like to receive a discount to attend both conferences. Email Claudia Gutwirth at claudia@greenpearlevents.com for further information or visit www.rewom- ensforum.com/register/new-york/ to register. Attendance is open to both men and women. Thursday, February 6 and Friday, February 7, 2020 IMN 3rd Annual Middle-Market Multifamily Forum (Northeast) Marriott New York Downtown, 85 West Street, New York, NY 8:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. February 6 and 8:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. February 7 With more than 400 attendees at last year’s conference, including over 200 owners/ operators and 25 exhibitors, IMN is excited to return this program to the Northeast and to explore all of the opportunities, strategies, trends, and issues impacting small and mid- sized owner/operators. Some of the themes we will explore include: going from small- to mid-sized player, first time working with institutional capital, investing in and manag- ing apartment buildings with up to 50 units, equity financing and small owner joint ven- tures, and Class B/C apartments. To register, visit www.imn.org/real-estate/conference/ Multifamily-Northeast-2020/Register.html. Thursday, March 5, 2020 CNYC’s Board Responsibilities as Employer and Housing Provider Location to be announced 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. An often overlooked component of a board’s responsibilities is its role as an employer and housing provider in the context of the federal, state, and local employment and housing laws. Attorneys Bryan Mazzola and Jackie Aiello will review the various employment and housing statutes that board members should be aware of to develop and implement policies and prac- tices that protect their buildings and themselves from liability and ensure compliance with the relevant laws. Best practices on how to address complaints of discrimination or requests for reasonable accommodations will be discussed. Register by calling (212) 496-7400 or by email- ing workshops@cnyc.coop. CAL EN D AR Industry Pulse Feb-March Law & Legislation Second Lawsuit Challenges Controversial Rent Rules Passed last summer, New York’s Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA) is facing a second lawsuit, reports Real Es- tate Weekly. The New York State Home and Community Renewal Agency (HCR)/Divi- sion of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR)—the agency behind the controver- sial law—has been sued in the U.S. District Court, Southern District in White Plains. Brought by the Building and Realty Insti- tute (BRI) of Westchester and Putnam Coun- ties, the Apartment Owners Advisory Council (AOAC), and several multifamily property owners, the most recent suit echoes the alle- gations in the first lawsuit brought in July by the Rent Stabilization Association (RSA) and Community Home Improvement Program (CHIP), which claimed that the regulations are unconstitutional. According to the Weekly, the new lawsuit claims in part that “The HSTPA limits the landlords’ financial ability to improve and maintain multifamily housing in those 21 communities in Westchester that have ad- opted ETPA \[(Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974)\], thereby reducing the quality of affordable multifamily housing available for rent. Without this income, the rent regulated Westchester multifamily housing will deterio- rate in the coming years, to the detriment of both tenants and landlords.” The Weekly goes on to say that the BRI suit also characterizes the HSTPA regulations as “an unlawful ‘taking’ without compensation” and “an arbitrary exercise of governmental power” over Westchester County’s more than 525,000 residences covered by the law. This is in addition to the allegation that HSTPA will hurt cooperatives by limiting their ability to vet prospective shareholders and collect late fees and other charges. Meanwhile, reports the Weekly, RSA is conducting a survey to quantify the costs of HSTPA in terms of dollars and jobs, as they are seeing a lot of layoffs and revenue loss in the contractor and building vendor industries after the enactment of HSTPA. DOB Reacts to Tragedy with New Façade Inspection Rules After 60-year-old architect Erica Tishman was tragically killed the week before Christ- mas by loose material falling from a building façade in Times Square, the New York De- partment of Buildings (DOB) is expediting changes to its façade inspection rules, reports CBS News. The DOB plans to strengthen the routine Façade Inspection Safety Program (FISP) as well as the Local Law 11 (LL11) inspec- tion process by replacing the practice of vi- sual examinations using zoom lenses from the ground with having inspectors use scaffolds to scale and physically inspect façades on all NYC buildings over six stories. The DOB has also doubled its façade inspection team from 12 to 24 inspectors, and the city council has also proposed a bill to allow drones to inspect buildings from the air. But many argue that the cost of such hands-on, up-close inspections—particularly the scaffolding implementation and rental they entail—might be too much to bear for many of New York’s already cash-strapped buildings, CBS News reports. It is also ques- tionable whether the enhanced inspections will actually keep the city safer, since the DOB had already issued violations to the owners of the building whose façade killed Ms. Tishman. The owners paid the fines, but did not address the violations. CBS News adds that failure to correct violations could incur steeper fines un- der the proposed rule changes. Finance NYC among Recipients of Community Land Trust Accelerator Funds Yahoo! Finance reports on the announce- ment by Citi Community Development and Grounded Solutions Network that the part- nership selected shared-equity housing pro- grams from New York and San Francisco to receive part of its $1 million Community Land Trust (CLT) Accelerator Fund. The capi- tal grant is intended to advance housing access and opportunity for low-income, first-time homebuyers. New York’s Urban Homesteading As- sistance Board (UHAB) and San Francisco’s Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) are the recipient organizations who will benefit from the fund’s strategic partner- ship engagement, technical assistance, and financial support. They join 2018 CLT recipi- ents Community Land Trust of Palm Beach County in Florida and Homes4Families in Los Angeles, California. In New York, UHAB’s award will support the conversion of a four-story building in Sun- nyside, Queens into shared-equity housing at 45-14 42nd Street. Of the building’s 20 walk- up units, 12 are currently occupied by South Asian and Latino immigrant families, reports Yahoo!. The conversion “presents a unique op- portunity for minority communities to collec- tively own and operate their housing in an in- creasingly unaffordable city,” explains UHAB Executive Director Andrew Reicher in the re- port. “The Accelerator Fund allows us to bring the permanent affordability and stewardship of a CLT, and help \[sic\] us reach deeper af- fordability levels for both existing and future incoming residents.” According to Grounded Solutions CEO Tony Pickett, “We must build awareness of the shared-equity model’s wealth-creation poten- tial for communities—specifically communi- ties of color—and the CLT Accelerator Fund helps us do that,” citing the $14,000 in earned equity the median shared-equity household accumulates after a median initial invest- ment of $1,875. Nearly 6 out of 10 shared eq- uity homeowners use their earned equity to later purchase a traditional market-rate home, Pickett adds. To date, the Citi/Grounded Solutions Network CLT Accelerator Fund has awarded $650,000 in capital grants, supporting the cre- ation of 147 homeownership units with lasting affordability, reports Yahoo!. Trends Ten Years of New York City Home Sales in Review amNewYork gives the borough-by-bor- ough breakdown of residential sales over the last decade as the 2010s come to a close. Over- all, the city saw real estate prices increase be- tween the first quarter of 2010 and the fourth quarter of 2019, but changes in tax law starting in 2017 brought those increases to a halt, even dropping back to 2010 prices over the last year in Manhattan. According to the amNewYork article, a true stand-out is Queens, where average prices re- main below the mansion tax levels, and large- scale development along the waterfront is now online. These new condos and their appealing amenities drew buyers from pricier boroughs like Manhattan and Brooklyn, and other af- fordability-conscious home-seekers flocked to subway-accessible neighborhoods like Sunny- side, Woodside, Jackson Heights, and Astoria. The outlet cites the erstwhile plans for a Long Island City Amazon headquarters as a draw for new residents, but Queens has en- joyed a steady increase in both sales and sales prices over the decade, with no sign of ebbing in sight. As long as interest rates remain low and prices remain affordable, Queens will re- main an attractive place for homebuyers and developers alike. Prices in Brooklyn and the Bronx also in- creased over the decade, with slightly more peaks and valleys than their Queens neighbor. The establishment of “Brooklyn” as a commer- cial signifier and global brand heightened its appeal to developers, who have transformed riverfront neighborhoods and areas like Bed- Stuy and Bushwick with luxury residences and other large-scale development. An influx of new residents to the Bronx (more than 86,000 between 2010 and 2017, according to amNewYork) , meanwhile, has harbingered neighborhood transformations and average and median sales prices that continue to rise modestly but steadily. Staten Island saw a big surge in prices after its post-Hurricane Sandy rebound, bolstered by homebuyers priced out of Manhattan and Brooklyn and a healthy luxury condo market. Low supply and high demand have put the borough out of reach for some budget-con- scious purchasers as prices reach “unafford- able levels,” cites amNewYork. n 2020 PULSE/CALENDAR