As the clock ticks down to the state’s 421-a renewal deadline on June 15, developers are wondering how they’ll fare if condos no longer qualify for the tax abatement. Companies building lower cost apartments on the fringes of the city will likely be the hardest hit, since the tax break helps attract buyers to less desirable neighborhoods.
Last night, 130 people crowded into a tiny dance rehearsal room above a theater in the East Village to talk about how they could turn struggling or vacant properties into affordable spaces.
Hotel developers are piling into manufacturing zones from the South Bronx to Bushwick, but the de Blasio administration is considering a ban on hotel development in these areas, particularly in protected industrial business zones (IBZs).
YIMBY used the city’s Open Data portal to map the last five years of 311 complaints about illegal conversions, and the numbers illustrate what longtime New Yorkers already know: the majority of illegal apartments occupy homes in densely populated, working class areas with growing numbers of recent immigrants.
Mayor de Blasio unveiled his grand plan to fix 421-a this week, and his proposal requires any developer who wants to take advantage of the property tax exemption to set aside 25 to 30 percent of their units as affordable housing. And the abatement would be extended from 25 to 30 years, in an attempt to make the measure more palatable to developers.
