The Fall of Stuy Town
As many anticipated when Tishman Speyer Properties bought Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village for a record-breaking $5.4 billion dollars, rents are going upwaaaaa-deep breath-aaaay up. But despite expectations, the [New York Times reports that te][nants are still shocked by the first round of lease renewal letters sent out by the new owners]. Charles V. Bagli writes,
Some tenants among the nearly 25,000 residents in the two complexes report that their rents are going up as much as 33 percent, the latest sign that the two complexes, long regarded as an affordable haven in Manhattan for middle-class New Yorkers, are changing.
Nevertheless, the paper reports that Rob Speyer, a senior managing director at Tishman Speyer, said that about 80 percent of the tenants will be renewing their leases, despite the bigger financial demands. Further, he stated that the companying is only finishing the process the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company started when they began bringing under-market rates up to market value. That may be a legitimate point, but it still doesn't make them friends to the middle class as market rates aren't exactly affordable right now ...