Not So Fast: Stuy Town Rent Ruling Stayed

Developer Tishman-Speyer was granted a stay that pauses a ruling which found it wrongfully raised rents at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. Tishman bought the rent-regulated complex for $5.4 billion, hoping to profit on market-rate rents, but a state appeals courts found the rent increases shouldn't have happened since it was receiving tax breaks associated with rent-regulated properties. The Observer reports, "Rather than immediately re-regulate the 4,000-plus apartments in Stuyvesant Town that have been converted to market rents since 1993, as the appellate court’s decision would require, the stay calls for Tishman to calculate how much money it would owe in back rent to market-rate tenants and put that money in an escrow account." A lawyer for Stuy Town tenants says that Tishman could owe tenants $200 million and the ruling affects many other landlords who got tax breaks for property improvements and then deregulated apartment.