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Stuy Town Suitor Blasts Brookfield Plan for Tenant Takeover

By DNAinfo Staff on December 2, 2011 9:01pm

The Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex stretches over 80 acres on Manhattan's East Side.
The Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex stretches over 80 acres on Manhattan's East Side.
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AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

By Mary Johnson and Patrick Hedlund

DNAinfo Staff

MANHATTAN — A developer who offered to convert the massive Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex into tenant-owned apartments last year has slammed a recent resident-endorsed plan from another real estate firm to put the property in the hands of longtime tenants.

Developer Guterman Westwood Partners LLC penned a letter to the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association Friday blasting this week’s announced partnership between the association and Brookfield Properties, after Guterman laid out what it claimed to be a more viable plan for the conversion in 2010.

Elected officials, including Stuy Town resident and local Councilman Dan Garodnick, joined tenants at the complex Wednesday to announce the partnership with Brookfield, which also owns Zuccotti Park, in a bid to purchase the 80-acre complex from senior property investor CW Capital.

Barry Blattman attended the Weds., Nov. 30, 2011, press conference to represent Brookfield Asset Management, which will be the tenants' partner in the bid to buy Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.
Barry Blattman attended the Weds., Nov. 30, 2011, press conference to represent Brookfield Asset Management, which will be the tenants' partner in the bid to buy Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.
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DNAinfo/Mary Johnson

Guterman Westwood, in outlining its proposal to convert the complex into tenant-owned co-ops, claimed Brookfield’s plan does not offer enough specifics about the conversion.

“We note this because, despite the size and industry dominance of Brookfield as a real estate firm, the Association’s announcement of its partnership with Brookfield does not set forth any details of what Brookfield would deliver to each of you from a financial and economic perspective,” the letter stated.

“Guterman Westwood has told you, the Association and its representatives, exactly what we will do — Brookfield has not.”

Guterman further elaborates its plan, which it says would be the most equitable option for a tenant-led conversion, claiming that residents’ total monthly payments after the proposed conversion would be equal to or lesser than the average current rent paid by tenants.

“We were good boy scouts, and it didn’t turn out to our benefit,” said Daniel Alpert, managing partner at Westwood Capital, which has teamed with the developer on real estate projects. “We had sort of treated the tenants with great respect.”

Alpert, who called the Brookfield proposal “curious” because it didn’t include pricing details, described his partnership’s bid as having “modest profit assumptions” and not an attempt to simply capitalize on the beleaguered property.

“We’re not looking to rape and pillage here,” he said. “We’re looking to earn an honest return.”

The tenants association, speaking on behalf of Brookfield, said that the developer's plan represented the best of “dozens of potential partners” considered during the process.

“Brookfield Asset Management stood out as the partner with the experience and expertise, credibility, financial capability, and the long-term commitment to our key principles that tenants need,” TA president Al Doyle said in a statement.

"This is the beginning of a long process to gather community input and put together a bid that best serves the tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. We look forward to working with our neighbors in the coming months to hear their feedback and suggestions as we move forward."