Roosevelt Island: Goodbye Eliot, Hello David

Eliot Spitzer during his gubernatorial campaign stopped at Roosevelt Island’s Church of the Good Shepherd and promised change. Island residents excited at the chance of keeping a Republican Governor out Albany were eager for Spitzer’s message of better days. Residents voted in large numbers for Spitzer evidencing their desire for change. During this last year we saw the ouster of Herb Berman and installation of Spitzer appointee Stephen Shane as RIOC CEO and President and we expected / hoped that Spitzer would respect our election of RIOC Board nominees.

We know little as to what soon to be Governor David Paterson thinks about Roosevelt Island and the issues that concern us most including transportation concerns, privatization, among others. We voted for Paterson as part of a Spitzer / Paterson ticket. To my knowledge Lt. Governor Paterson only has step foot on Roosevelt Island once last May during a photo op with Mayor Bloomberg regarding the Verdant Power water turbine project in the East Channel of the East River behind Gristedes.

It is still way too early to know whether Roosevelt Island will be left alone or whether DHCR Van Amerongen will even be able to submit the elected slate of RIOC Board Nominees or how this new administration will look upon the various privatization efforts of the buildings here on Roosevelt Island. We will simply have to wait and see.

Will Southtown Include Affordable Housing?

The question regarding whether Southtown will include affordable housing is one that the NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal and the Spitzer Administration has to face head on. To date the marketing of the existing four buildings has certainly been upscale and the prices to back that up. The issue of affordability has again been highlighted by the very public sale of 58 units to NYU on top of past building sales to Memorial Sloan Kettering and Weill Cornell Medical College. Nothing has been issued to indicate the next five would marketed any differently.

The General Development Plan requires 40% of the planned units offered to be affordable and occupied by low- and middle-income residents.

The question has now been raised in a direct letter, dated January 29, 2008, to DHC Commission Deborah Van Amerongen how the GDP requirement will be met and what the DHCR is doing to ensure it is. The letter is jointly signed by US. Representative Carolyn Maloney, State Senator Jose M. Serrano, Asseembly Member Micah Kellner, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and City Council Member Jessica Lappin.

The question how will Hudson / Related the developers ensure that they meet the 40% requirement can have long lasting effects. When Northtown Phase 2 was constructed builders set aside, to my knowledge, all of 2 and 4 River Road to meet the affordability percentage requirements they were required to meet. Because these units were separated from the rest of Manhattan Park reports have been that the management and upkeep of these buildings have suffered. Will Hudson / Related do the same? Will the same result occur again.

It will be interesting to see how this develops, pardon the pun, and how the developers respond to the letter from our elected officials. On one hand the State had no trouble taking money for the Southtown development rights but will they now uphold the GDP as law as they are trying to do by keeping the remaining three WIRE buildings, in Mitchell-Lama, as affordable housing.

Rivercross Schedules 2nd Attempt at Privatization Vote

The Rivercross Tenants' Corporation has scheduled a new Privatization Vote for January 30, 2008 after its December 12, 2007 vote was cancelled by the DHCR. The rescheduled vote was announced to the Rivercross residents through a January 15, 2008 internal building memo.

DHCR claimed the Dec. 12th vote, which included votes by proxy, to be invalid. The Rivercross Board of Directors claimed that the proxy vote was valid as this was the second vote in a series that began in October 1996. DHCR invalidated the 2007 vote as reliance on the 1996 initial vote was stale.

The Privatization Committee has indicated that this vote is not the final vote but only one to authorize the committee to begin the paperwork to move forward towards privatization which does as part of the process notify DHCR of the building's intent. Once a "black book" is created which would be the final "plan" the residents would then post an actual vote on that plan. A percentage of Rivercross residents don't want to even begin this process based on their belief that all avenues have not been exhausted to solve the buildings financial needs without going the privatization route. The Main Street WIRE has covered the issues much more in depth than I can here and I encourage any reader to go the WIRE website to read the indepth coverage provided.

What I find interesting is the timing of the vote in light of DHCR Commissioner Van Amerongen's January 17th promise to get back to the Board within the week with information regarding the FMV ESDC tax bill which is in part pushing the Rivercross privatization process along. If the DHCR wants to be taken seriously the Commissioner better get back to Rivercross before the January 30th vote if the news is to have any impact on this rescheduled initial vote.

ESDC Update: DHCR’s VanAmerongen Promises Response Within Week

As previously reported the New York State Empire State Development Corporation issued FMV tax equivalency bills to the Westview, Island House and Rivercross buildings during the closing months of 2007.

On January 17, 2008 NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen met with members of the Rivercross Board of Directors. Subsequent to that meeting, the Rivercross Board issued an update memo (under its resident apartment doors) to its shareholders stating that “the DHCR Commissioner has been “charged with resolving” the ESDC tax bill program”.

As per the Rivercross Board memo,VanAmerongen stated she would be in contact with the ESDC and was committed to getting Rivercross a response by next week. Presumably her efforts would also impact the bills issued also to Westview and Island House.