BROOKLYN, NY - The owners of Starrett City, a 34-year-old housing complex on Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn, have reached an agreement with federal, state and city officials on the sale of the 140-acre enclave under guidelines that would ensure that it remains a haven of housing affordable to working and middle-class families. The agreement would not only allow for the sale of the nation's largest federally subsidized housing complex, but also end a bitter battle that pitted the longtime owners of the complex against residents, tenant advocates and many elected officials. The sale will start this week, and the owners hope to sign a contract by Sept. 1, although it is unclear how high the bidding will go given the slowing economy.
Starrett City, which comprises 46 brick towers with a total of 5,881 apartments, has its own power plant, shopping center, post office, churches and a synagogue. It is widely regarded as one of the most successful economically and racially mixed housing complexes in the country. Opponents successfully blocked a $1.3 billion sale last year to the real estate investor David Bistricer, fearing that the high price tag would force the new owner to remove tenants in favor of higher-paying residents in order to make a profit. The long-running dispute played out during a real estate boom in New York that has caused rents to soar and has reduced the supply of affordable housing.
Instead of deregulating the complex, the accord states that the guidelines for a sale would preserve Starrett City as affordable housing. "I never really thought we could get such a happy solution," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, who helped block the sale last year. "There were so many players, different factions of tenants, the owners, state, city and federal officials, Democrats and Republicans. But it was worth the long fight and many hours of negotiations. With this agreement we are assured that on into the next generation Starrett stays affordable to working-class and middle-class New Yorkers."
Tenant advocates also embraced the agreement, which is described in a memorandum of understanding that was signed by the owners, Starrett City Associates; Priscilla Almodovar, the president of the State Housing Finance Agency; Shaun Donovan, the city's housing commissioner; and John L. Garvin, a senior adviser at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. "It's what we've been fighting for for two years," said Bertha Lewis, executive director of New York Acorn, a community organization that worked with the Starrett tenants association. "This is a model agreement. Finally the tenants at Starrett are actually going to get a very good night's sleep. No matter who wins the bidding, they know that people have to abide by the rules."
Ms. Lewis said the Starrett agreement could become a model for other subsidized housing complexes that are up for sale. In recent years, tenant advocates, like the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, say that large developers and private equity firms have bought 90,000 apartments in the South Bronx, Harlem, Long Island City and East New York, raising rents and depleting an already tight housing market. Mr. Schumer, Gov. David A. Paterson, Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, Congressman Ed Towns and others plan to attend a rally at Starrett City on Monday to formally announce the accord and the pending sale.
Starrett City, with its manicured lawns and dozens of apartment towers with balconies, was designed in the 1970s as a subsidized middle class co-op, not a rental complex. But it initially had difficulty attracting residents and over time, the complex acquired an array of rent subsidies for poor and working-class tenants. As the original owner, Starrett City Associates initially invested $33 million in the complex and promised to keep rents low in return for a variety of tax b
Source: NYtimes.com