Vacant Storefronts Proliferate in NYC, And It’s No Easier To Identify Owners
arrow A vacant storefront on the Upper East Side Beth Fertig / WNYC
Taking a walk along Third Avenue in the 80s and 90s near his home, City Councilman Ben Kallos points to one empty storefront after another and recalls some of his favorite Upper East Side shops and restaurants.
“This was an amazing steakhouse,” said the Manhattan native, referring to a place on the west side of the avenue. Across the street was a Modell’s Sporting Goods; he also sees a former taco place and a storefront with a red awning that used to be Pesce Pasta. “It was a great place for an Italian lunch and it s been vacant for a number of years,” he said.
REIT Leaders Speak Out at NYU Conference cpexecutive.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cpexecutive.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Scott Stringer (Getty, NYC Comptroller, iStock/Illustration by Alexis Manrodt for The Real Deal)
Mayoral hopeful Scott Stringer wants to require all residential projects to include affordable housing but some developers say his numbers don’t add up.
The city comptroller released a 47-page housing plan Thursday including details on the “universal affordable housing” program he announced last year. Under it, developers would have to make at least 25 percent of apartments deeply affordable in projects with 10 or more units.
The low-rent units would be affordable to households earning, on average, 60 percent of the area median income significantly less than in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plan. Developers would get subsidies and tax exemptions to build in neighborhoods where residents earn below 60 percent of AMI.
Long A New York Real Estate Mainstay, LLCs Lose Their Anonymity
arrow In the 2010’s, neighborhoods like West Chelsea and “billionaire’s row” south of Central Park were transformed as developers rushed to meet international demand for swanky apartments many of them purchased by buyers paying full-price, using shell companies. Mary Altaffer/AP/Shutterstock
On January 1st, Congress passed a measure to end the secrecy around shell companies that has fueled a boom in high-priced New York condominiums. The new law could discourage the flow of international capital into Manhattan real estate, while giving investigators powerful new tools to detect money laundering and other financial crimes.