The cooperative conversion of West Village Houses, a 42-building, low-rise complex between Bank and Morton Streets and Washington and West Streets in the Far West Village has closed.
The complex was planned, with the help of Jane Jacobs, in the 1960¿s and the first buildings were completed in 1974. The plain, brown buildings, many of which have fire escapes, was designed by Perkins & Will, and was built under the Mitchell-Lama housing subsidy program.
In 2002, the owners of the complex announced they were opting out of the program and many residents faced enormous rent increases.
The complex was described by Elliot Willensky and Norval White in their book, ¿The A. I. A. Guide to New York City Architecture, Fourth Edition¿ (Three Rivers Press, 2000), as ¿The scene of the great war between the defenders of ¿Greenwich Village scale¿ and the Establishment, which proposed another high-rise housing project.¿ ¿The David in this case was Jane Jacobs, the Goliath, Robert Moses, the city¿s urban renewal czar. A pyrrhic victory for David: the 5- and 6-story red brick products are dumpy, dull, and for their time, expensive. Scale simply isn¿t enough!,¿ the authors maintained.
In a May 15, 2005 article in The New York Times, Josh Barbanel described the development, which contains numerous gardens, as ¿once the ugly duckling of Greenwich Village.¿
Its location, however, has changed radically and is now one of the most desirable in the city as a result of the building of Hudson River Park nearby and the booming redevelopment in recent years of the Far West Village and Chelsea neighborhoods.
The complex was acquired in 1976 as a Mitchell-Lama rental development by Island Capital Group, which is headed by Andrew Farkas, the former chairman of the Insignia Financial Group. That group announced plans in 2002 to leave that program and the following year a tenants association filed a lawsuit that sent a dispute over whether the apartments would be eligible for rent stabilization to the state¿s Division of Housing and Community.
Under the terms of an agreement announced May 20, 2004 by Mayor Bloomberg, however, the lawsuit was dropped and the association was allowed to form an affordable non-eviction co-op. The agreement was also intended to keep rents below market rates for residents who do not buy into the co-op and the Bloomberg administration will ask the City Council to approve a tax exemption for the development that will maintain its tax abatement at the current level for 12 years. The agreement requires that more than half of the tenants buy into the co-op.
The city agreed to forgive about $19 million of interest charges that has accrued on the mortgage and the owner agreed to sell the development to the tenants at a discount. The tenants association has agreed to let the owner buy the units not bought by tenants and sell up to 51 of them at market prices without flip taxes or limits on prices.
The ¿Red Herring¿ dated February 28, 2005 indicated that 1,200,000 shares would be allocated to the 418 apartments for sale for $82,596,000.
By the end of February more than 60 percent of the eligible renters had elected to buy shares in the cooperative and the deal was closed early this month.
Under the terms of the deal, almost 100 residents will be offered new leases under rent stabilization by the old owners, who retain ownership of those units and rents start at the existing rate under the Mitchell-Lame program and future increases are established by the Rent Stabilization Board. The renters will remain stabilized for 12 years and can still purchase their units albeit at lesser discounts.
An article by Albert Amateau in The Villager March 15 indicated that ¿The total price the new co-op paid the former landlord is estimated at $115 million.¿
The complex was planned, with the help of Jane Jacobs, in the 1960¿s and the first buildings were completed in 1974. The plain, brown buildings, many of which have fire escapes, was designed by Perkins & Will, and was built under the Mitchell-Lama housing subsidy program.
In 2002, the owners of the complex announced they were opting out of the program and many residents faced enormous rent increases.
The complex was described by Elliot Willensky and Norval White in their book, ¿The A. I. A. Guide to New York City Architecture, Fourth Edition¿ (Three Rivers Press, 2000), as ¿The scene of the great war between the defenders of ¿Greenwich Village scale¿ and the Establishment, which proposed another high-rise housing project.¿ ¿The David in this case was Jane Jacobs, the Goliath, Robert Moses, the city¿s urban renewal czar. A pyrrhic victory for David: the 5- and 6-story red brick products are dumpy, dull, and for their time, expensive. Scale simply isn¿t enough!,¿ the authors maintained.
In a May 15, 2005 article in The New York Times, Josh Barbanel described the development, which contains numerous gardens, as ¿once the ugly duckling of Greenwich Village.¿
Its location, however, has changed radically and is now one of the most desirable in the city as a result of the building of Hudson River Park nearby and the booming redevelopment in recent years of the Far West Village and Chelsea neighborhoods.
The complex was acquired in 1976 as a Mitchell-Lama rental development by Island Capital Group, which is headed by Andrew Farkas, the former chairman of the Insignia Financial Group. That group announced plans in 2002 to leave that program and the following year a tenants association filed a lawsuit that sent a dispute over whether the apartments would be eligible for rent stabilization to the state¿s Division of Housing and Community.
Under the terms of an agreement announced May 20, 2004 by Mayor Bloomberg, however, the lawsuit was dropped and the association was allowed to form an affordable non-eviction co-op. The agreement was also intended to keep rents below market rates for residents who do not buy into the co-op and the Bloomberg administration will ask the City Council to approve a tax exemption for the development that will maintain its tax abatement at the current level for 12 years. The agreement requires that more than half of the tenants buy into the co-op.
The city agreed to forgive about $19 million of interest charges that has accrued on the mortgage and the owner agreed to sell the development to the tenants at a discount. The tenants association has agreed to let the owner buy the units not bought by tenants and sell up to 51 of them at market prices without flip taxes or limits on prices.
The ¿Red Herring¿ dated February 28, 2005 indicated that 1,200,000 shares would be allocated to the 418 apartments for sale for $82,596,000.
By the end of February more than 60 percent of the eligible renters had elected to buy shares in the cooperative and the deal was closed early this month.
Under the terms of the deal, almost 100 residents will be offered new leases under rent stabilization by the old owners, who retain ownership of those units and rents start at the existing rate under the Mitchell-Lame program and future increases are established by the Rent Stabilization Board. The renters will remain stabilized for 12 years and can still purchase their units albeit at lesser discounts.
An article by Albert Amateau in The Villager March 15 indicated that ¿The total price the new co-op paid the former landlord is estimated at $115 million.¿
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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