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‘Crowning’ achievement: Deal brings 600 rent-regulated units to Heights

‘Crowning’ achievement: Deal brings 600 rent-regulated units to Heights
Photo by Jason Speakman

Call it an exercise in stability.

Tenants of the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital apartment complex in Crown Heights cheered a deal announced on July 18 that stabilized the rents of 600 units, giving hundreds of occupants secure homes for the next three decades, according to residents.

“This enables me to stay in one place, to become involved in the community, and to bond with a specific neighborhood,” said 27-year-old tenant Alexandra Lotero. “It means I get to keep a stable home.”

The agreement followed more than two years of negotiations between landlord Alma Realty, the DeBlasio administration, and local politicians including Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo (D–Crown Heights) and Assemblyman Walter Mosley (D–Crown Heights). It gives Alma a tax exemption in return for offering benefits that include guaranteed lease renewals and modest rent increases at five of the complex’s six buildings.

The landlord first applied for the exemption roughly a decade ago and had offered tenants similar benefits in anticipation of that deal, which was never reached because the city rejected its application, a rep said.

Alma tried to raise rents to market rates in 2014 after failing to gain the tax break, but tenants organized in opposition and the landlord agreed to keep rate increases in line with those laid out by the city’s rent guidelines board as it re-applied for the exemption, according to the rep, who said all rent benefits would have been killed if the latest deal did not go through.

The new agreement stabilizes current tenants’ rents regardless of how much money they make, but new renters will be subject to income restrictions.

Cumbo, who was criticized for her late condemnation of a plan to bring luxury housing to the neighborhood’s publicly-owned armory and faces a contested primary in September, hailed the achievement as a victory against gentrification.

“Gentrification cannot take root when we work together as a community,” she said.

A still-in-progress mortgage deal will prevent residents of the complex’s sixth building from receiving rent stabilization benefits for the time being, but the landlord expects its lender will consent to the regulatory agreement as soon as the refinancing is complete, according to spokesman Nick Conway.

Reach reporter Colin Mixson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4505.