Residential condominium apartment sales began in the spring of 2007 at 225 Rector Place, the former Parc Place rental apartment building in Battery Park City.

The 23-story building was erected in 1986 and designed by Gruzen Samton Steinglass (now Gruzen Samton LLP) for the Related Companies, which sold the 306-unit property in 2005 to YL Real Estate Developers along with Columbus Green at 101 West 87th Street for $165 million.

Related had received tax breaks when it erected the building in exchange for making 20 percent of the units available for moderate-income tenants and in 2002 Related extended that protection to the year 2019 as an inducement for people to stay in the building after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 as it was one of the closest in Battery Park City to Ground Zero.

After paying off a mortgage of the Housing Finance Agency, the new owner, Yair Levy, argued that the provision of rent controls for the moderate-income units no longer applied. While most of the market-rate tenants in the building vacated as their leases expired, the tenants in the moderate-income units remained.

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer prevailed on Mr. Levy to continue the affordable rent protects for tenants remaining in the building.

The market-rate tenants in the other units have vacated as their leases expired. An article by Josh Rogers in the April 13-19, 2007 edition of the Downtown...