Columnist at The Real Deal, covering NYC real estate. Previously a reporter and editor at Crain's New York Business, 2005-19. Journalist since 1991.
NY
Joined December 2010
- Tweets11.4K
- Following966
- Followers5.4K
- Likes3.2K
Erik Engquist retweeted
ICYMI from Somos: Gov. Kathy Hochul is having conversations with housing interests, labor leaders on potentially pursuing scaffold law reform next year, according to people familiar w/ those talks.
Labor and advocates for builders are bracing for a fight:
therealdeal.com/policy-pro/n…
Does the WFP really believe this? Hochul won by 20 points!
>“I think she understands that she couldn’t have won without the help of the mayor, without the help of the Working Families Party, without the help of @AOC," state WFP director Jasmine Gripper told City & State.
4
858
I see that Sen. Liz Krueger wants to chair the Senate housing committee. In 2023 she opposed raising NYC's density cap because she doesn't like tall buildings in Manhattan therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
Will @GovKathyHochul be pressured into accelerating statewide rent stabilization? Or a third millionaires' tax and mansion tax? I predict not. But she and @NYCMayor could agree on a 485x fix. therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
I didn't hear any candidates blathering about "drill, baby, drill" and "energy independence" during the campaign. Do you think people have figured out that it doesn't shield us from rising gas and oil prices?
1
343
Erik Engquist retweeted
@trdny's @erik_engquist saw it coming
Two @ny_multifamily brokers asked me about NYC real estate and politics and what it's like to cover them for @trdny. Exceptionally well produced podcast by Marcus & Millichap.
newyorkmultifamily.com/the-r…
5
529
In 16 months, FARE Act fines and broker fees recovered for tenants totaled 4 cents per rental unit. Yet all the coverage of enforcement has focused on the violations, not the fact that they are exceedingly rare. therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
Court Street in Brooklyn has 23 percent fewer crashes since the bike lane went in, NYPD data show. See CrashCount.nyc
Do you agree or disagree with this theory?
> Tenants who think they can nab a great deal on a rent-stabilized apartment in NYC without paying a rental broker are engaging in wishful thinking.
1
3
444
The @MTA says “legend has it that the 2,174-foot-long Manhattan Valley Viaduct, a massive steel bridge over a deep valley in Upper Manhattan, was built in just two weeks.” In the same newsletter it brags about a current project going thru five or six stages of review. Hello?
“The viaduct was 2,174 feet long, and the journal Tramway and Railway World said that the 168.5-foot span across 125th Street, 54 feet high, was built in two weeks by from 30 to 40 men.”
nytimes.com/2003/10/26/reale…
63
Erik Engquist retweeted
Forget everything I've said about private rent-stabilized buildings being regulated into bankruptcy.
Don't take my word for it.
Listen instead to the head of the state's nonprofit housing association.
Nonprofit operators run rent-stabilized buildings too. They deal with the same nonpayment and collection losses, the same frozen rents. But they also get tax benefits private owners don't, and they often borrow on far more favorable terms.
And they're dying too.
This isn't a profit problem. It's a government problem.
therealdeal.com/policy-pro/n…
The city says the average size of 485x projects is increasing. But the number of projects above 99 units is still near zero. Every week more sites are lost to undersized projects:
> The largest permit filed yesterday was for a 99-unit project at 228 West 29th Street in Chelsea.
Jason B. never left NYC, never stopped paying city income taxes. Mamdani's Department of Finance said that doesn't spare him from a pied-à-terre tax of $47,500. Jason went searching for another way to get out of it. Here's his story: therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
Erik Engquist retweeted
Nearly half of NYCHA households owe back rent. The authority's collection rate plunged nearly 9 percentage points to 59.8% in a year.
What's behind the decline? @Erik_Engquist examines whether City Hall's messaging, rather than economics alone, is making matters worse.
therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
Lots of folks are contributing ideas about how to boost housing supply. And then we have the City Club of New York, which is trying to do the opposite. Given who leads it, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
