New York City is willing to extend the three-year limit for developers to finish projects initiated recently take advantage of the 421-A incentive program that expired last summer, according to an article published Saturday in The Daily News by Adam Lisberg.

The article said that Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber said the City understands "the difficulty of actually trying to build in this market," adding that "We don't want to blow the whole restructured 421-A out the door just because we've had nine tough months."

The article said quoted Steve Spinola, the head of the Real Estate Board of New York, an industry organization, as stating that "right now, nobody's building anything," adding that "we need to put the city in a position to benefit when the world starts turning again."

His organization wants to have the old provisions of the 421-A program restarted. The program had been started in 1970s and gave developers tax breaks for new construction in certain areas of the city. It was modified to encourage the subsidy of affordable housing off-site but the most recent modification required affordable housing on-site and limited incentives to a portion of the project's value.

To qualify for the incentives under the old regulations, developers had to have foundations in place before last July 1. The article said that "In the month before that date, builders applied for permits for 17,128 new apartments," adding that "The next month, they sought just 2,102."

The article maintained that Mr. Spinola claimed that "The world has changed," adding that "If we knew then what we know now, would we have made those changes?"

Brad Lander of the Pratt Center for Community Development was quoted in the article as stating the REBNY proposal to revive the old version of 421-A is "an outrageous and completely self-serving play by the real estate industry," and added that Tom Waters of the Community Service Society argued that "The economic crisis is making affordable housing more necessary, not less."