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 › Real Estate/Renting
  • Renovating in the Big Apple—Thinking Outside the Box

    Andreea 05/09/2018     Architecture, Articles, Real Estate/Renting

    By Ananth Sampathkumar and Mary Chandrahasan, Partners/NDNY Architecture + Design PLLC Renovating your new home or commercial space can be a daunting task, even for the most seasoned hand. Having designed and managed a few renovations in the city, we can lend some insight into counterintuitive decisions that owners should consider which could add value

    Read more »

  • Meenakshi Srinivasan

    LPC Under Pressure for New Leadership & Rules

    Andreea 05/09/2018     Articles, Real Estate/Renting

    By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Meenakshi Srinivasan, chairwoman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) since 2014, has announced her resignation as of June 1, 2018. Published comments in recent weeks from a few of the dissatisfied public reflect the controversies surrounding historic preservation laws that have existed since their American introduction in the 1960’s.

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  • Consider Co-housing

    Andreea 05/07/2018     Letters, Opinion, Real Estate/Renting

    Dear Editor, Your February 2018 article “G-d at the Drafting Board” was thought provoking and novel. Readers can disagree with taking an active playground to build more buildings, but the real point must have been that we need a new approach to senior and affordable housing. As such, mixing the older demographic with the younger is an

    Read more »

  • Ready to Write Checks to Save Pier 40

    Andreea 05/07/2018     Featured, Neighborhood, Real Estate/Renting

    By George Capsis Oh wow, a Crain’s New York article from April 24th quotes Hudson River Park Trust engineer, Steven Perker on just how they are going to encase the 3,600 corroded steel piles now shakily holding up the 15 acres of Pier 40 (the largest pier in the Hudson) to allow it to provide

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  • Model Housing

    Neighborhood Preservation Updates

    Andreea 04/08/2018     Articles, Neighborhood, Real Estate/Renting

    By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP West Village Houses Residents Fight Back The West Village House (WVH) co-op board reportedly spent $300,000 exploring the feasibility of an unsolicited Madison developer’s offer. How can the WVH board spend that when they now say it “never was on the table,” when there is so much pressure to

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  • 5Pointz graffiti

    5Pointz Decision, Part 2: The Tuesday Morning Massacre

    Andreea 04/07/2018     Arts and Culture, Featured, Real Estate/Renting

    By Catherine Revland On March 14th, the lecture room at the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park South was packed with artists, attorneys, curators, art dealers, critics, and historians to hear a discussion about the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA).The speakers were Federal District Court Judge Frederic Block (who spoke to the broader subject of

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  • Tech Hub building

    Tech Hub

    Andreea 04/06/2018     Articles, Real Estate/Renting

    By Andrew Berman Mayor de Blasio has filed an application for a rezoning to allow a large new “Tech Hub” to be built on the south side of 14th Street just east of Fourth Avenue, on the longtime site of a P.C. Richard and Son store. Sandwiched between two high-rise New York University dorms, the

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  • Consider Co-housing

    Andreea 04/06/2018     Letters, Opinion, Real Estate/Renting

    Dear Editor, Your February 2018 article “G-d at the Drafting Board” was thought provoking and novel. Readers can disagree with taking an active playground to build more buildings, but the real point must have been that we need a new approach to senior and affordable housing. As such, mixing the older demographic with the younger

    Read more »

  • Artists, Property Rights and the Law

    Andreea 04/06/2018     Letters, Opinion, Real Estate/Renting

    Dear Editor, I am thankful for the article The 5Pointz Decision, March 2018, by Catherine Revland, because it offers a comprehensive distillation of a very controversial legal matter. Part Two is promised for the April 2018 issue. The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) has been litigated in a jury trial for the first

    Read more »

  • Correction

    Andreea 03/10/2018     Correction, Politics, Real Estate/Renting

    Within the February 2018 issue of WestView (print edition only), the dollar amount referenced in the article entitled “Give it Back, Chuck” was incorrect (page 6). The corresponding phrase should read: “…at a $1,200 per plate dinner.”

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  • Google Gobbles Meat Market

    Andreea 03/10/2018     Articles, Neighborhood, Real Estate/Renting

    By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has reached an agreement to acquire Chelsea Market for $2.4 billion. Jamestown, the sellers, won approvals from the city to add almost 300,000 square feet on top of the property back in 2012. That would increase the number of office floors above the famous ground

    Read more »

  • Go For It, God

    Andreea 03/09/2018     Letters, Opinion, Real Estate/Renting

    Senior share housing is a great idea, George! I hope you can get the wheels in motion, especially in that excellent location! I had to chuckle, too…finding our minds running on the same track. In my case, I was wondering whether—if and when one of them became available—I could possibly afford to pay the rent

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  • The Truth About Rent Control

    Andreea 03/09/2018     Letters, Opinion, Real Estate/Renting

    Dear WestView News, Your February 2018 article “The Rent is Due—$127.61 Please” is one of the most misleading articles I have ever read on rent control, and probably a plant by a landlord association. Professor Neuman obviously doesn’t know how rent control works, or has ulterior motives. It is different from rent stabilization and is

    Read more »

  • Senior Share Apartments: Now Renting

    Andreea 03/09/2018     Architecture, Articles, Real Estate/Renting

    By George Capsis I recently got a call from what sounded like a very nice senior lady who read my February 2018 front-page proposal to build connected apartments with seniors on one side and young people on the other. The young occupants would be just out of college and would want to live in the

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  • The Rent is Due – $127.61 Please

    Andreea 02/03/2018     Articles, People, Real Estate/Renting

    By W. Russell Neuman $127.61. Yep, for a nifty 1,000-square-foot apartment in an award-winning Federal townhouse on Morton Street. Yes, indeed. That is the current rent, per month, in 2018. West Village heaven. How is this possible, you ask? The answer, of course, is rent control. Other similar but uncontrolled apartments in the same building

    Read more »

  • Give It Back, Chuck

    Andreea 02/03/2018     Articles, Politics, Real Estate/Renting

    By Cynthia Chaffee and Mary Ann Miller On January 18th, a frigid Thursday evening, the senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, was feted by the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) at a $1,200 per plate dinner. This all took place at the Midtown Hilton Hotel on 6th Avenue and 53rd Street. While

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  • The Fight to Save Small Businesses

    Andreea 02/03/2018     Articles, Neighborhood, Real Estate/Renting

    By Andrew Berman One of the most pressing neighborhood issues on the minds of many West Villagers, and many New Yorkers, is the disappearance of local small businesses. Time after time, we see cherished neighborhood businesses closing, often replaced by chain stores or worse, and storefronts that remain empty for years while property owners seek

    Read more »

  • High-Priced Condos Drive Up the Cost of Everything

    Andreea 02/03/2018     Letters, Opinion, Real Estate/Renting

    Dear Mr. Capsis, I met you at the November 23rd inaugural concert at St. Veronica’s Church. I was truly sorry to read in WestView News of your loss. It sounds like you and your cousin John had much in common. I write to you concerning two articles that appeared in the December 2017 issue of

    Read more »

  • I’ve Seen the Light and It Ain’t Pretty

    Andreea 02/03/2018     Letters, Opinion, Real Estate/Renting

    Dear Editors: My apartment faces the towering buildings across the river in Jersey City. While I can mostly see only their higher floors and not the river itself, the views of the open sky and sunsets are important to us West Siders. I was shocked, stunned, and appalled a few months ago to look out

    Read more »

  • God at the Drafting Board

    Andreea 02/03/2018     Architecture, Articles, Featured, Real Estate/Renting

    By George Capsis If God sat down at the drafting board to design a perfect solution for seniors now living alone in a five-story walk-up, with an ancient dog that has to go four times a day, what would He come up with? He would have a nice, fresh-faced youngster offer a strong arm to

    Read more »

  • When Landlords Commit Sexual Harassment

    Andreea 01/11/2018     Articles, People, Real Estate/Renting

    By Joseph Turco, Esq. “If I had a hammer, I’d SMASH the Patriarchy.” This message was seen on a sign at the Women’s March on January 21, 2017. It should come as no surprise that several Village big wigs (all white, all male) have been exposed as cads and worse as a result of the

    Read more »

  • A.G. Schneiderman Announces Unprecedented Consent Decree With NYC Landlord Steven Croman

    Andreea 01/11/2018     Articles, People, Real Estate/Renting

    The New York State Office of the Attorney General (OAG) published the following press release on December 20, 2017. It has been edited by WestView News. Today, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced an unprecedented settlement with Steven Croman, a major New York City landlord, for engaging in illegal conduct, including harassment, coercion,

    Read more »

  • Against the Destruction of West Village Houses

    Andreea 01/11/2018     Letters, Opinion, Real Estate/Renting

    Dear Editors: As long-term residents of the West Village Houses, we are appalled at how the Board is trying to destroy this low-rise community, which was championed by Jane Jacobs. They want to tear our buildings down and turn us into luxury housing. The community needs to rise up to stop this. —Alice Moore &

    Read more »

  • An Historic Moment

    Andreea 01/11/2018     Articles, People, Real Estate/Renting

    By Cynthia Chaffee & Mary Ann Miller On Wednesday, December 20, 2017 at 60 Centre Street, an historic consent decree was reached between the New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the lawyers for Steve Croman. This decree included an unprecedented monetary restitution ($8 million), which the disgraced landlord must pay to his injured

    Read more »

  • Nothing’s Changed!

    Andreea 12/08/2017     Articles, People, Real Estate/Renting

    By Mary Ann Miller and Cynthia Chaffee You can ask any Croman tenant, “Has anything changed since Steve Croman went to jail?” and you’ll get a resounding, “NO.” And why should anything have? Steve Croman is still in charge and, rumor has it, he’s running the business by cell phone from his cell—giving new meaning

    Read more »

  • New Tools To Fight Bad Landlords: Free Lawyers

    Web admin 11/04/2017     Articles, Real Estate/Renting

    By Joseph Turco, Esq. Here is some good news for tenants: The gradual rollout of the ‘Right to Counsel’ for tenants in the NYC Housing Court is progressing as expected. The promised funding, which Mayor di Blasio has declared as crucial to preserving affordable housing, is being allocated in stages. By 2022, it will reach

    Read more »

  • Where is Steve Croman?

    Web admin 11/04/2017     Articles, People, Real Estate/Renting

    By Mary Ann Miller and Cynthia Chaffee When Judge Jill Konviser sentenced Steve Croman to one year in Rikers, she said, “Rikers ain’t the Ritz.” Well, we know he’s not at the Ritz, but it seems that he ain’t at Rikers either. We found him. A bit of snooping revealed that Steve Croman is actually

    Read more »

  • An Update on Steve Croman

    Web admin 11/04/2017     Articles, People, Real Estate/Renting

    By Joseph Turco, Esq. In my September 2017 WestView article, “Landlord of the Flies: Steve Croman’s Social Diary is Empty,” I wrote that ‘The Madoff of Landlords,’ Steve Croman, had lost his famed lawyer Ben Brafman over a fee dispute. A few days after publication, I received a call from the Stop Croman Coalition advising

    Read more »

  • Move Along, Nothing to See Here!

    Web admin 11/04/2017     Articles, Neighborhood, Real Estate/Renting

    Staples officially left the premises of 390 6th Avenue in early October. It joins the ranks of Barnes & Noble, which vacated the building on the northern corner of that block in January 2013, leaving the space empty for the past several years. The Duane Reade on the southern corner closed its doors earlier this

    Read more »

  • He Didn’t Jaywalk, But He Did Just About Everything Else!

    Web admin 10/08/2017     Articles, People, Real Estate/Renting

    By Mary Ann Miller & Cynthia Chaffee On June 6th of this year, when Judge Jill Konviser sentenced landlord Steve Croman to one year at Rikers Island, she added this admonishment, “If you so much as jaywalk, I’ll make sure this sentence is increased.” The Croman tenants at the sentencing hearing that morning thought,“Finally, here

    Read more »

  • Urban Myth: West Village Landlords Save Money When They Keep Spaces Empty (Part Two)

    Web admin 10/08/2017     Articles, Neighborhood, Real Estate/Renting

    By Steve Wilson In the September issue of Westview, I discussed the impact of escalating commercial rents and the resulting closures of restaurants and retail stores within the West Village. In Part Two, I explore the impact of online retailers on that commercial landscape. The impact of online merchants like Amazon and FreshDirect on West

    Read more »

  • The Real Cost of Rising Rents

    Web admin 10/08/2017     Articles, Neighborhood, Real Estate/Renting

    By Christopher of Christopher Street On March 13, 2016, Council Member Corey Johnson, New York State Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, and New York State Senator Brad Hoylman gathered in front of the Associated Supermarket near the corner of 14th Street and 8th Avenue to protest the imminent closing of the store due to rent hikes.

    Read more »

  • VID Takes on Law-Breaking Landlords

    Web admin 10/08/2017     Articles, Neighborhood, Real Estate/Renting

    By Erik Coler, President of the VID The first time Aaron Carr tried to explain what a state-issued J-51 tax credit was, I had no idea what he was talking about. He might as well have been speaking another language. Aaron had recently left his job as chief of staff to a New York State

    Read more »

  • West Village Houses Today: The Garage Struggle

    Web admin 09/04/2017     Articles, Real Estate/Renting

    By Brian J. Pape, AIA Attending Community Board 2’s (CB2’s) full board meeting on July 20th gave me an earful of local news. Following up on previous West Village Houses (WVH) articles for our readers, the debate over the parking requirement for WVH at their 738 Greenwich Street Parking Garage at Perry Street was a

    Read more »

  • Historical Commercial Rent Controls in New York City

    Web admin 09/04/2017     Articles, Real Estate/Renting

    By Brian J. Pape, AIA Contrary to common belief, there is still rent control for historic commercial buildings in New York City, as was reported at a recent Community Board 2 (CB2) meeting. Under discussion were applications for variances to allow Group 6 ground floor and cellar uses in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District, both

    Read more »

  • Department of Buildings Shrugs as Megatowers Take Over New York City

    Web admin 09/04/2017     Articles, Real Estate/Renting

    By Nan Victoria Munger If you want to get to Carnegie Hall, you could practice a whole lot. Or, you could simply raise your eyes to the City skyline and head toward the ‘Billionaire Building,’ a 1,005-foot luxury condominium across the street from the legendary concert venue. One57 is one of many megatowers springing up

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  • Landlord of the Flies: Steve Croman’s Social Diary Is Empty

    Web admin 09/04/2017     Articles, Real Estate/Renting

    By Joseph Turco, Esq. Let’s gather what we know about the ever-sinking fortunes of the ‘Bernie Madoff of Landlords,’ Steve Croman. 1. In May 2016, just as his despicable son Jake went viral after calling an Uber driver “a minimum wage faggot,” little Jake’s dad, Steve Croman, was indicted on 20 felonies for lying on

    Read more »

  • Urban Myth: Landlords Save Money by Keeping Spaces Empty (Part One)

    Web admin 09/04/2017     Articles, Neighborhood, Real Estate/Renting

    By Steve Wilson Passing by empty storefronts and restaurants, Villagers can often be heard uttering the widely accepted urban “truth”—They (landlords) make money by deducting the high rents which they no longer receive. Leading local commercial real estate broker Brian Kanarek insists that landlords don’t make money on empty storefronts: “Landlords cannot claim a deduction

    Read more »

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