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…
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]
I keep wondering about what’s going to happen to that Collection building. Is it even still listed?
VICTORY
Trouble ID’ing troubled condos? Where’s Forte’ aka Forente’? Just put a blanket on all of ’em. Some developers we’re able to dump but resellers are not. No GMAP necessary, we have streeteasy and the Times.
***Bid half off peak comps***
“ID’ing Troubled Condos”
Piece o’ cake: All.
“what makes a building ‘financially troubled’? is there some concrete metric?”
Less than fitty cent (sometimes higher) sold.
***Bid half off peak comps***
Never mind re GMAP. An intrepid Local reader has just volunteered! Will notify yall when it’s up.
@DIBS and everyone else —
Andy Newman from The Local here. The GMAP suggestion is a good one. One of our commenters had the same thought. If there’s an intrepid citizen journalist out there who has the time today (I don’t, unfortunately) and the inclination to build such a map, that would be awesome. It could post here (if Mr. B wants it) and on The Local both. I’m happy to forward the whole spreadsheet, which includes data like the status of the building (complete, under construction, etc.), whether it’s condo or rental, etc. If interested, drop me a line at bklocal@nytimes.com. Thanks much.
correction – 95 lex does have closed units – but you get the point
Looks like the AY footprint will receive its affordable units after all.
i’m curious about the definition of ‘troubled’ as well. the crain’s article doesn’t really specify and the list includes a whole lot of buildings in very different situations. for example, 1 hanson pl – recent price cuts, but a lot of sales – and – 95 lexington, 111 steuben, etc – with no closed sales, a lot of units still on the market, etc. some of these look like real candidates for loan defaults, others less so.