Transmitter Park in Greenpoint to Get 11-Story Mixed-Use Building Adjacent

Planning Commission approved bulk regulation amendment for an eleven-story building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. On April 26, 2017, the City Planning Commission issued a favorable report on an application submitted by Kent/Greenpoint, LLC, to develop an eleven-story mixed-use building in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood. The applicant sought to amend bulk regulations related to the location of legal windows, landscaping requirements for off-street parking and minimum street wall heights in order to orientate the massing of the proposed … <Read More>


Planning Commission Approves Retail Use in Canal Street Ground Floor

The City Planning Commission approved the conversion of a Canal Street ground floor into retail use. On April 26, 2017, the City Planning Commission issued a favorable report on an application from Canal Associates, LP, a subsidiary of United American Land, owner of 361 Canal Street in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. The application sought a special permit to exempt the location from certain requirements of Section 42-14D(2)(b) of the Zoning Resolution to allow for the conversion … <Read More>


Rent Guidelines Board Votes to End Two Year Rent Freeze

The Rent Guidelines Board held a preliminary vote to increase rents on one-year and two-year leases in New York City. On April 25, 2017, the City’s Rent Guidelines voted to raise the rents for New York City’s one million rent stabilized apartments. In the two previous years the Board had voted to freeze rents citywide, the first freezes in New York City’s history. For CityLand‘s previous coverage of the rent freezes, click here.


Council Committee Approves Six of Twenty-one Construction Safety Bills

Housing Committee approves six pieces of legislation from package of 21 bills on construction safety, more to follow including apprenticeship bill. On April 24, 2017, the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings approved six bills from a package of 21 on which the Committee heard testimony on January 3st. For CityLand’s prior coverage of that hearing, click here. Chair of the Committee, Jumaane Williams, noted that the Committee planned on approving some … <Read More>


Schneiderman Announces Indictment of NYC Landlord in $5 Million Mortgage Fraud Scheme

A New York City landlord was indicted for mortgage fraud scheme in Lower Manhattan, stemming from tenant harassment investigation. On April 6, 2017, New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the indictment of Dean Galasso, a New York City landlord. Galasso was indicted on six felony charges in relation to an alleged scheme to fraudulently obtain a multi-million-dollar mortgage to finance the acquisition of a rental building. Galasso faces one count of Grand … <Read More>


Tenant Harassment Bills Package to be Considered by Committee

City Council Committee to hear testimony on a package of bills intended to strengthen protections for tenants subject to harassment by landlords. Since the mid-2000s and largely due to the housing bubble, predatory equity has become a metastasis on the New York City housing market. The expulsion of both rent stabilized and market-rate tenants is accomplished through means both legal, by abusing technical loopholes in State law, and illegal, by dangerous living conditions and intimidation.