According to an article today by Sara at curbed.com, the owners of London Terrace Gardens, the rental apartment enclave in the middle of the block bounded by Ninth and Tenth Avenues and 23rd and 24th Streets want to "back out" of the J-51 program they entered in 2003 because they don't want to have the same fate as the owners of Stuyvesant Tower and Peter Cooper Village.
The owners, the article maintained, are "petitioning the city and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to rescind London Terrace's J-51 participation retroactively" and "in turn, London Terrace will give back its J-51 benefits."
The article provided the following quotation from the owners' petition:
"London Terrace applied for and agreed to participate in the J-51 program beginning in 2003 under the mistaken belief - shared by the City, HPD and DHCR - that DHCR regulations in effect since 2000 had the force of law, and that London Terrace would be permitted to continue applying luxury decontrol in accordance with those regulations. London Terrace would not have participated in the J-51 program if...London Terrace would have been precluded from applying luxury decontrol. Indeed, participating in the J-51 program in such circumstances would have been economically irrational...because increased rental income resulting from luxury decontrol was far greater than London Terrace's J-51 tax benefit."
Last November 17, Sara wrote an article at curbed.com that maintained that "inspired by the brave men and women of Stuy Town, some of the tenants at Chelsea's London Terrace Gardens have begun fighting their own deregulation battle. They're suing their landlord with the argument that the buildings' owners raised rents while receiving tax breaks for renovations. The 11 tenants claim that up to 300 apartments in the complex were illegally deregulated."
Tishman Speyer Properties and its partners acquired the huge Stuyvesant Town and adjoining Peter Cooper Village enclaves to the east of First Avenue between 14th and 23rd Streets for more than $5 billion in the expectation that within a few years they could increase rents through vacancies to make the investment profitable.
A court ruling, however, dashed those hopes.
When London Terrace, which was designed by Farrar & Watmaugh, was completed by Henry Mandel in 1931, it was considered the largest apartment building in the world with 1,665 apartments.
In 1948, the building was divided into two parts and sold to separate management companies. The ten middle buildings were sold to four partners, which included two electrical contractor brothers and two partners in the concrete business.
The corner towers went co-op in 1987 and the center buildings, known as London Terrace Gardens since they surround a one-acre interior garden courtyard, remain as rental units.
The buildings have doormen and a central concierge desk is surrounded by murals depicting Chelsea that were commissioned in 1999 by artist Tom Christopher.
The owners, the article maintained, are "petitioning the city and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to rescind London Terrace's J-51 participation retroactively" and "in turn, London Terrace will give back its J-51 benefits."
The article provided the following quotation from the owners' petition:
"London Terrace applied for and agreed to participate in the J-51 program beginning in 2003 under the mistaken belief - shared by the City, HPD and DHCR - that DHCR regulations in effect since 2000 had the force of law, and that London Terrace would be permitted to continue applying luxury decontrol in accordance with those regulations. London Terrace would not have participated in the J-51 program if...London Terrace would have been precluded from applying luxury decontrol. Indeed, participating in the J-51 program in such circumstances would have been economically irrational...because increased rental income resulting from luxury decontrol was far greater than London Terrace's J-51 tax benefit."
Last November 17, Sara wrote an article at curbed.com that maintained that "inspired by the brave men and women of Stuy Town, some of the tenants at Chelsea's London Terrace Gardens have begun fighting their own deregulation battle. They're suing their landlord with the argument that the buildings' owners raised rents while receiving tax breaks for renovations. The 11 tenants claim that up to 300 apartments in the complex were illegally deregulated."
Tishman Speyer Properties and its partners acquired the huge Stuyvesant Town and adjoining Peter Cooper Village enclaves to the east of First Avenue between 14th and 23rd Streets for more than $5 billion in the expectation that within a few years they could increase rents through vacancies to make the investment profitable.
A court ruling, however, dashed those hopes.
When London Terrace, which was designed by Farrar & Watmaugh, was completed by Henry Mandel in 1931, it was considered the largest apartment building in the world with 1,665 apartments.
In 1948, the building was divided into two parts and sold to separate management companies. The ten middle buildings were sold to four partners, which included two electrical contractor brothers and two partners in the concrete business.
The corner towers went co-op in 1987 and the center buildings, known as London Terrace Gardens since they surround a one-acre interior garden courtyard, remain as rental units.
The buildings have doormen and a central concierge desk is surrounded by murals depicting Chelsea that were commissioned in 1999 by artist Tom Christopher.
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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