Mayor, Local Elected Officials and Tenant Leaders Announce 20-Year Agreement with Blackstone and Ivanhoé Cambridge to Protect Middle Class Housing at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village

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The Mayor of the City of New York, local elected officials and tenant leaders today announced an agreement with Blackstone and Ivanhoé Cambridge, a subsidiary of CDPQ, a leading Canadian pension fund manager, that will protect thousands of affordable apartments at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village (STPCV) – one of the largest enclaves of moderate and middle income housing left in Manhattan. The agreement represents the largest number of affordable apartments ever preserved in a City-led single transaction in the history of New York City. The 5,000 remaining below-market apartments at STPCV have been in danger of becoming permanently deregulated as soon as current tenants leave, changing the face of this community forever. Under the agreement, Blackstone and Ivanhoé Cambridge – which are acquiring the complex from CW Capital – will ensure those rental apartments will remain affordable to moderate and middle-income families for at least the next 20 years. The plan will halt the loss of more than 300 affordable apartments each year and ensure this remains a home for nurses, teachers, first responders and working families. The agreement also caps rents for “Roberts” tenants living in approximately 1,400 apartments, who are subject to significant increases in 2020, when the J-51 tax abatement expires. Under the agreement, rent increases on these units will be limited to five percent per year for five years, starting in 2020. Additionally, Blackstone and Ivanhoé Cambridge have publicly stated their intention to protect the community’s open spaces and the unified nature of Peter Cooper and Stuyvesant Town, as well as to create an environment welcoming to long-term tenants seeking to put down roots. The agreement will also provide additional on-site services for STPCV’s growing senior population including a licensed social worker, a staffed Community Center providing programming for seniors, regular medical screenings, wellness checks to look in on elderly tenants, and a dedicated staff member to assist seniors with completing SCRIE benefit applications. false false false STPCV will be held in a partnership comprised of Ivanhoé Cambridge and Blackstone’s core real estate fund, Blackstone Property Partners, which makes long-term investments in high-quality, stable assets. false false false Details of the Agreement: Current Status There are 11,241 apartments at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village. As a result of the Roberts v. Tishman Speyer litigation, all of the units are currently subject to rent stabilization, at least until 2020, when the J-51 tax abatement period expires. Roughly half of the complex’s apartments have already seen their rents increase to market-rate – as high as $10,000 per month. However, there remain over 5,000 traditionally rent-stabilized apartments with rents below-market, which are being lost to de-regulation. The remainder of the complex, rent stabilized because of the Roberts litigation, will lose all protections under rent stabilization for their occupants in 2020. Without intervention, the City predicts that all but 1,500 apartments at the entire complex would be converted to luxury units within 20 years. New Protections in Place: Under the agreement negotiated with the City, 5,000 apartments that are at risk of losing their affordability will be locked into a 20-year affordability program. Current tenants of those units will continue to have the protection of rent-regulation, and if they ever move, Blackstone and Ivanhoé Cambridge will rent to new tenants who income-qualify at restricted rents. Ninety percent of units must be rented to middle-class households earning no more than $128,210 for a family of three, and 10 percent of apartments must be rented to moderate-income families earning no more than $62,150 for a family of three. None of the new tenants will pay more than 30 percent of their income in rent. The City’s Housing Development Corporation will fund a loan of up to $144 million to secure the affordability and protect STPCV’s legacy as a mixed income community that anchors the city’s middle class. Additionally, the approximately 1,400 apartments set to lose all rent protections in 2020 –which would otherwise be converted to luxury rentals – will now have five additional years of protection, with annual rent increases held to no more than 5 percent. The agreement will apply to Blackstone, Ivanhoé Cambridge and any future owner. The transaction is expected to close by the end of December 2015. Blackstone and Ivanhoé Cambridge will assume ownership and management of STPCV at that time. Together, these measures protect this community’s affordability for a generation to come. false false false