The NY Times reports analysis of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village finances shows revenues for the huge complex dropped last year. And that's in spite of Stuyvesant Town owner Tishman Speyer converting 560 rent-regulated units into market-rate units!
Or maybe it's because of the conversion. When Tishman Speyer paid $5.4 billion for the complex, its plan was to increase profitability by increasing the number of market-rate units. However, there have been legal costs associated with trying to push out rent-regulated tenants (of course). And then there are the reports of hundreds of vacancies in the buildings, due to the soft real estate market, prompting new marketing strategies to attract market-rate tenants.
The Times article then looks at the tensions between rent-regulated tenants and Tishman Speyer; while tenants feel they are being unduly harassed, the management company says it has only been trying to crack down on people abusing the system (those with other homes they reside in, for instance). Lux Living, a blog critical of Stuyvesant Town, suggests that Waterside Plaza has been trying to appeal to the huddled masses escaping Stuy Town--and why not, if NYU students living in Stuy Town really are throwing themselves at pressurized walls! Still, some new tenants are very happy there.
