NEW YORK CITY-Bowing to some criticism of its notice to raise rents in a few weeks by as much as 30% at its Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village development here, CW Capital Asset Management LLC pushed the effective rent increase date back to July 1.
CWCapital Asset Management told 1,300 tenants on Tuesday that under the terms of a legal settlement, their monthly rents could rise by as much as $2,200, according to residents and New York City Councilman Daniel Garodnick. Tenants were originally told that if they were not willing to pay the new rates they had until mid-July to vacate. That deadline has since been pushed back to Aug. 1, according to Bloomberg News Service and other media outlets.
After a protest in front of its leasing offices, CWCapital revised the terms, saying tenants would have until July 1 to start paying the higher rates and until Aug. 1 to vacate if they chose not to pay the rent increase. The rent increases are in accordance with a legal settlement that set a formula for what the landlord can charge for about 4,300 of the complex's apartments through 2020. CWCapital, the special servicer for the $3-billion senior loan on the property, represents investors in that mortgage debt. The firm has controlled the complex, home to about 25,000 residents, since the loan went into default in 2010.
Garodnick says tenants are exploring their legal options, noting that a rent strike is possible. “You sign a lease, you have a rent, you revisit when the lease is due,” he says. See story at Bloomberg.
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