Spinola: NYC is 'a Real Estate Town'

NEW YORK CITY-At the start of 2013, the Real Estate Board of New York found its already lengthy to-do list elongated considerably by the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. “The board had to play a very significant role at the very end of 2012 and through the first half of this year on the issue of what are the impacts and what kind of changes will be necessary,” REBNY president Steven Spinola tells GlobeSt.com.

As a result of this work, “We think the industry is better equipped now” to deal with future superstorms, says Spinola. “What is great about our industry is that they didn't wait for decisions by government to say, 'you have to move this equipment or that equipment' and so forth. When they were repairing the buildings, they just did it. That gave us a head start on determining what needed to be done and how it should be done.”

Even with that multifaceted issue added to its agenda, though, the association has accomplished much over the course of the past year that didn't entail dealing with the effects of an historic storm. Chief among these accomplishments was the reinstatement of a number of programs that were beneficial to the industry but had expired, such as the co-op/condominium rebate and the J-51 tax abatement program for owners renovating apartment buildings.

“It was a serious problem” when J-51 expired, “because people who had started the program but hadn't completed renovations were now in jeopardy of not getting any benefits,” Spinola says. That was because the expiration of the J-51 law did not allow owners to be grandfathered in.

In an election year, REBNY spearheaded the creation of an independent expenditure initiative known as Jobs for New York. “For what I believe was the first time in the city's history,” Spinola says, “we ran independent campaigns on behalf of 22 different candidates,” 18 of whom won. “It wasn't just that we ran some ads on radio or TV; in fact, we did very little of that. We did direct mailings, people knocking on doors and making phone calls, and on Election Day we pulled out voters.” The candidates—who were not contacted by REBNY—were selected for support based on their past positions on “creating good jobs and generating opportunities for investment.”

When all was said and done, Spinola says, “We were very pleased with that effort. We believe the business community and especially the real estate community combined need to demonstrate a willingness to stand up for what's important in the city of New York. When people think of New York, they say 'it's a Wall Street town.' But it's not a Wall Street town; it's a real estate town. The income-producing properties”—from apartment buildings to industrial properties—“generate 34% of all of the locally generated revenue that the city has to spend. This is a huge number, far exceeding what is generated citywide from income taxes and sales taxes.”

Along with working with the incoming mayor on issues such as the need for more affordable housing, a key initiative that REBNY wants to highlight during the coming year is “the importance of real estate, the importance of an industry that builds, and continues to own in many cases, and generates what is probably the most well-paid, unionized jobs in the city other than government itself,” says Spinola. “We intend to get that message out there in 2014.”