From Crime To CO-OP | Tudor City

Built in the late 1920’s by Manhattan real estate developer Fred F. French, Tudor City became one of the first residential skyscraper complexes in the world. Nestled in the east side between First and Second Avenues, it is bordered by 40th Street to the south and 43rd Street to the north.

At the turn of the century — before French’s development — the neighborhood was dominated by tenements and slums and was plagued by one of the highest crime rates in the city. With Tudor City, French sought to transform a haven for gang and criminal activity into a “residential enclave” that would attract the middle-class tenants who had been fleeing the city for the safety and comfort of the suburbs and outer boroughs.

Completed in 1932, this “city within a city” – as French often referred to it – is now home to over 5,000 New Yorkers and includes a number of residential apartment buildings, a hotel, businesses, three parks and a children’s playground.

2 Tudor City Place is a 15-story tower within the complex that was converted to a co-op in 1985 when Tudor City changed ownership. In 2000, Leonard Grunstein was involved in the re negotiation of the building’s ground lease, an agreement in which the tenant is permitted to develop property for a specified time. According to Barbara Corcoran, who was quoted in a 1998 New York Times article, an advantage to purchasing units in such properties is “that the owners typically keep them in excellent physical and fiscal condition…”

WVH Article-11 CO-OP Structure | West Village Tenants Association

Following two years of negotiations, the West Village Houses — a 420-unit residential complex between Bank and Morton streets — were converted to a co-op in 2004.

Built in the early 1960s, the residential complex was originally conceived by housing activists as a community-based co-op. But because of rising construction costs, the project did not attract enough buyers and was eventually acquired by private owners as a Mitchell-Lama property in the mid-1970s.[1]

The conversion was the result of a tenant-sponsored initiative that, following the owners’ decision to opt out of the state’s Mitchell-Lama housing program in 2002, sought to fight enormous rent increases and the displacement of hundreds of long-time community members.

Leonard Grunstein, who worked directly with the tenants association, was involved in the creation and financing of the Article 11 co-op structure, which was essential to the success of the tenants’ non-eviction proposal.

According to the agreement, tenants would purchase the complex from the landlord at a discounted rate. Additionally, the city would forgive approximately $19 million in interest on the mortgage loan and approve a tax exemption for 12 years.

Eventually signed by the tenants association, owners, and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the plan ensured that existing tenants would be able to either buy into the co-op or continue to rent their units at below-market rates. Relieved of the anxiety stemming from the possibility of 300 percent rent increases, tenants association President Katy Bordonaro applauded the Bloomberg administration’s commitment to affordable housing and its involvement in the project.

New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick lauded the conversion, saying at the time, “It’s the first step in what will be a long-term victory for affordable housing.”[2]

 

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[1] The Villager, “Victory! West Village Houses to become an affordable co-op,” 5/26/04

[2] Ibid.