MetLife, Inc., announced yesterday that it was ¿evaluating options¿including the possibility of marketing the assets for sale¿ of its huge Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town apartment complexes on the east side of Manhattan.
Stuyvesant Town occupies the entire area bounded by 14th and 20th Streets and First Avenue and Avenue C and the FDR Drive.
Peter Cooper Village occupies the entire area just to the north bounded by 20th and 23rd Streets, First Avenue and the FDR Drive.
Both ¿moderate-income¿ developments were built soon after World War II to provide ¿moderate-income¿ housing for veterans. By the time the first building was occupied, the company had more than 100,000 names on its ¿waiting list¿ when most rents were around $50 a month.
In 2001, MetLife stopped using the lists and, according to a May 7, 2006 article in Newsday by Melanie Lefkowitz, began renting vacated apartments for market rates, telling reporters then that it had a responsibility to shareholders to maximize its profits.¿ ¿Five years later,¿ the article continued, ¿about 25 percent of the¿apartments have left rent stabilization and two-bedroom units in Peter Cooper, where original tenants still pay less than $1,200 a month, are now listing for $4,050 and up.¿
The two developments, shown at the right outlined in red in a recent Municipal Art Society publication about the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, contain more than 11,200 apartments.
In an article in the July 6, 2006 edition of The New York Sun, Julia Vitullo-Martin provided a good history of the two developments:
¿The company's traditional investment tactics fared poorly during the Depression, and MetLife concluded that good rental housing would provide a steady, predictable stream of revenue. The state Legislature agreed, and amended the insurance code to permit residential investment, thereby opening up a new channel of financing for New York's extraordinarily tight housing market.¿
¿To achieve the desired revenue,¿ the article continued, ¿MetLife said it needed tremendous scale and a cleared site. It insisted on the city's acquiring the entire gashouse district, between 14th and 23rd streets and First Avenue and the FDR Drive, by eminent domain - the forerunner of the urban renewal projects of the 1950s and 1960s¿.Although its apartments were targeted at returning veterans, MetLife announced it would not accept applications for its development from black households. Instead, it alleviated some criticism by building another, smaller project in Harlem, the 1,323-unit Riverton.¿ In 1957, the city banned discrimination of any kind in public and private housing.
A MetLife press release yesterday quoted Robert Merck, the company¿s head of real estate investments, as stating that ¿we believe current market conditions are very favorable, and we have decided to test the market to gauge buyer interest in these properties.¿ Metlife, the press release continued, ¿believes there is a lot of capital seeking high-quality real estate of this caliber and anticipates that it will see excellent market pricing for these properties.¿
If market pricing does not reflect the company¿s expectations, Merck was quoted as stating that ¿we will not sell the properties at this time.¿
The two complexes comprise about 80 acres. Stuyvesant Town¿s 89 thirteen-story, red-brick buildings were erected in 1947 and Peter Cooper¿s 21 fifteen-story, red-brick buildings were built the following year. Apartments are Peter Cooper were somewhat larger than those in Stuyvesant Town. The enclaves departed from the city¿s street grid pattern and the minimalist buildings were scattered in a park-like setting.
Irwin Clavan was the architect.
In 2003, MetLife introduced ID cards to replace keys in Peter Cooper Village and this spring MetLife was authorized to require that the cards have the tenants¿ photographs.
Stuyvesant Town occupies the entire area bounded by 14th and 20th Streets and First Avenue and Avenue C and the FDR Drive.
Peter Cooper Village occupies the entire area just to the north bounded by 20th and 23rd Streets, First Avenue and the FDR Drive.
Both ¿moderate-income¿ developments were built soon after World War II to provide ¿moderate-income¿ housing for veterans. By the time the first building was occupied, the company had more than 100,000 names on its ¿waiting list¿ when most rents were around $50 a month.
In 2001, MetLife stopped using the lists and, according to a May 7, 2006 article in Newsday by Melanie Lefkowitz, began renting vacated apartments for market rates, telling reporters then that it had a responsibility to shareholders to maximize its profits.¿ ¿Five years later,¿ the article continued, ¿about 25 percent of the¿apartments have left rent stabilization and two-bedroom units in Peter Cooper, where original tenants still pay less than $1,200 a month, are now listing for $4,050 and up.¿
The two developments, shown at the right outlined in red in a recent Municipal Art Society publication about the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, contain more than 11,200 apartments.
In an article in the July 6, 2006 edition of The New York Sun, Julia Vitullo-Martin provided a good history of the two developments:
¿The company's traditional investment tactics fared poorly during the Depression, and MetLife concluded that good rental housing would provide a steady, predictable stream of revenue. The state Legislature agreed, and amended the insurance code to permit residential investment, thereby opening up a new channel of financing for New York's extraordinarily tight housing market.¿
¿To achieve the desired revenue,¿ the article continued, ¿MetLife said it needed tremendous scale and a cleared site. It insisted on the city's acquiring the entire gashouse district, between 14th and 23rd streets and First Avenue and the FDR Drive, by eminent domain - the forerunner of the urban renewal projects of the 1950s and 1960s¿.Although its apartments were targeted at returning veterans, MetLife announced it would not accept applications for its development from black households. Instead, it alleviated some criticism by building another, smaller project in Harlem, the 1,323-unit Riverton.¿ In 1957, the city banned discrimination of any kind in public and private housing.
A MetLife press release yesterday quoted Robert Merck, the company¿s head of real estate investments, as stating that ¿we believe current market conditions are very favorable, and we have decided to test the market to gauge buyer interest in these properties.¿ Metlife, the press release continued, ¿believes there is a lot of capital seeking high-quality real estate of this caliber and anticipates that it will see excellent market pricing for these properties.¿
If market pricing does not reflect the company¿s expectations, Merck was quoted as stating that ¿we will not sell the properties at this time.¿
The two complexes comprise about 80 acres. Stuyvesant Town¿s 89 thirteen-story, red-brick buildings were erected in 1947 and Peter Cooper¿s 21 fifteen-story, red-brick buildings were built the following year. Apartments are Peter Cooper were somewhat larger than those in Stuyvesant Town. The enclaves departed from the city¿s street grid pattern and the minimalist buildings were scattered in a park-like setting.
Irwin Clavan was the architect.
In 2003, MetLife introduced ID cards to replace keys in Peter Cooper Village and this spring MetLife was authorized to require that the cards have the tenants¿ photographs.
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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