In New York City this week, the real estate world coalesced around former governor and current mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo, who released his housing plan (and faced scrutiny over the use of ChatGPT to construct it).
The lengthy plan included calling for the city to build and preserve 500,000 homes over 10 years and to create a $5 billion capital fund to finance housing over five years, equally funded by the city and state.
As The Real Deal’s Kathryn Brenzel pointed out, however, Cuomo’s housing plan had plenty of ideas but scant details on how to execute them.
Cuomo’s big housing release came on the heels of real estate cash flowing into the ex-governor’s campaign, including a $100,000 donation to a super PAC tied to Cuomo from the Durst Organization. Be on the lookout for how his and other candidates’ housing plans impact the wallets of the industry.
- Speaking of other candidates, they lined up to bash Cuomo and his real estate ties. On Friday afternoon, swaths of progressive contenders — assembly member Zohran Mamdani, Comptroller Brad Lander, Sen. Zellnor Myrie and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams — held a joint press conference to tee off on the former governor’s housing plan and ties to the real estate industry.
- More than 15 years after purchasing the Billionaires’ Row site, the Feil Organization finally has the means to push ahead with a luxury office-to-resi conversion. Feil and joint venture partners BLDG and the Nakash Family are launching construction this spring on the conversion of the 14-story, 85,000-square-foot office building at 140 West 57th Street, turning it into 47 luxury condos.
Feil bought the building in 2009 from Harry Macklowe for $59 million, but has since been slowed by zoning regulations and a lawsuit.
- Another major project was discussed at a recent City Planning Commission meeting. Apollo Global Management, RXR Realty and SL Green Realty are planning to convert the 38-story office building at 5 Times Square into up to 1,250 units of housing, of which 25 percent would be affordable.
That’s a big increase from the 942 units previously planned for the site. The project is expected to obtain qualification for 467m, a new property tax break for office-to-residential conversions where at least 25 percent of units are set aside as affordable.
Read more
Feil finally kicks off Billionaires’ Row office-to-resi conversion
The Daily Dirt: 5 Times Square could transform into 1,000-plus apartments
The Daily Dirt: Picking apart Cuomo’s ChatGPT-powered housing plan