Stuy Town Owner Scraps Plan To Warehouse Affordable Homes: Report

STUYVESANT TOWN, NY — A real estate group has changed course and decided it will renovate and rent out vacant apartments at Stuyvesant Town after backlash for reports it would "warehouse" rent-regulated digs, according to news reports.

Gothamist reported a spokesperson for Blackstone Group, which owns the sprawling development at 14th Street and First Avenue, said the company will lease out vacant units.

"We are renovating and leasing all vacant units, and we will continue to fulfill our commitment to voluntarily preserve 5,000 affordable apartments," Blackstone representative Jennifer Friedman told Gothamist.

Some 20 to 50 apartments were being left empty, The Real Deal reported late last month.

The so-called "warehousing" of units was shortly after the real estate group said it would stop renovations following sweeping rent laws that reduced how much renovation costs could be passed down to tenants through rent hikes on rent-regulated apartments.

Blackstone and Ivanhoe Cambridgé bought the Stuy Town housing complex in 2015 for $5.3 billion from CW Capital.

Under a deal with the city, the two real estate companies would get $220 million in subsidies to guarantee 5,000 of more than 11,000 units at the complex would remain affordable for 20 years.

Politicians, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, raised concerns over the vacant units, according to Gothamist.

De Blasio told WNYC on "The Brian Lehrer Show" that city officials would have "serious conversations" regarding the 2015 deal.

Though he said there were unintended consequences in the new rent laws, "a deal is a deal. ... That obviously requires the apartments to be available to people," per Gothamist.

Friedman, a spokesperson for Blackstone, said following the new state legislation, "we have to make some difficult choices and scale back certain investments," though maintained all vacant units will be leased. She added that apartments occupied for decades require significant work when they become vacant.

Click here to read the full Gothamist report.