ID'ing Troubled Condos

Update: The assertion that the buildings in Assemblyman Jeffries’ list are all struggling financially is incorrect. We based this assumption on the Crain’s article, which stated that all the buildings in the list “are either financially troubled or on the verge of distress.” Mr. Jeffries’ list contains new, residential, market-rate buildings in his district. 377 Franklin, for example, was on the list, even though it is a rental and as of a year ago, seemed in good financial standing. Word comes from The Local that Crain’s has corrected its error, and Lupe Todd, a spokesman for Jeffries, would not be more specific about the number of actually distressed buildings. He told The Local: “These buildings are coming in to the real estate market in a very distressed financial climate, which includes a recession, the bursting of the housing bubble, and the contraction on Wall St. As a result, Assemblyman Jeffries has concluded that it would be very difficult for many of the real estate developers and equity investors to obtain the financial returns they initially envisioned … It would not be appropriate for the Assemblyman to elaborate on the financial condition of other buildings due to the sensitive nature of impending negotiations.” The negotiations mentioned are Mr. Jeffries’ talks with banks and developers about the possibility of unloading vacant units as affordable housing.

Yesterday Crain’s reported that Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries has counted around 65 market-rate buildings in his district (District 57, which includes Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, and Prospect Heights) that are “financially troubled or on the verge of distress.” The Local published the entire list of those developments, which includes both finished buildings and stalled projects. The list includes 30 buildings in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, such as 525 Clinton (a.k.a. The Collection, a building with bad luck; you may remember that a worker died there last November). Mr. Jeffries says that he sees a silver lining in that some of these projects could be used for affordable housing, and he is approaching banks and developers to investigate this possibility (a possibility that reportedly at least one building in Downtown is already considering).
Update, 3 p.m.: The Local is now reporting that not all 65 developments on the list Jeffries’ office put together are actually distressed properties, which makes a lot of sense. Apparently the list was simply of new residential buildings in the Assemblyman’s district. More on this as it becomes clearer.
65 Central Bklyn Condos in or near Financial Distress [Crain’s]
Gleaming Landscape of Debt [The Local, NYT]
Troubling Developments [The Local, NYT]
The Ghosts of 525 Clinton [Brownstoner]
Downtown Development Going Affordable [Brownstoner]