Stuyvesant Towners movin’ out?

Marketplace Staff Oct 18, 2006
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Stuyvesant Towners movin’ out?

Marketplace Staff Oct 18, 2006
HTML EMBED:
COPY

TEXT OF STORY

LISA NAPOLI: Turns out the average compensation for Wall Street Workers is far from average. According to figures released Tuesday, Wall Streeters pulled down an average of $289,664 last year. That’s about five times the average for the regular New Yorker.

Meanwhile, some people who don’t make that much cash in Manhattan are wondering what’s going to happen to their apartments. The owners of Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building have made what the NY Times is calling the largest American real estate deal ever: $5.4 billion for the residential complex called Stuyvesant Town. Alex Goldmark looks at what it could mean for the families who live there.


ALEX GOLDMARK: Back in 1947 MetLife used city subsidies to build decent housing for returning veterans and since then Stuyvesant Town has been a haven of middle class housing.

Professor of Real Estate at Baruch College, John Goring, says that new ownership won’t change rents right away because most of the 11,000 units are protected by rent stabilization laws.

But tenants are still on edge. The new landlord, Tishman Speyer still hasn’t announced its plan for when apartments become market rate units.

JOHN GORING: They have in fact pledged a considerable amount of money which suggests they will be looking for ways to increase the returns to justify the price of this.

Goring says it may fall on the City to keep Stuy Town a middle class neighborhood through subsidies and housing vouchers.

I’m Alex Goldmark for Marketplace.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.