GREENWICH VILLAGE — New York University has cut a deal with a co-op that owns 505 LaGuardia Place to avoid a massive rent hike in the future for residents who qualify for affordable housing.
The deal will prevent an impending rent hike tied to the land's market value, while limiting future rent hikes at the building, located on a NYU-owned Greenwich Village superblock. The plan will also extend the co-op's lease on the property while it remains in the state-subsidized Mitchell Lama affordable housing program.
"The importance of protecting and preserving affordable housing cannot be underestimated," said City Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who worked on the deal with NYU.
The building is part of a trio of residential facilites on a NYU-owned Greenwich Village superblock that includes the two Silver Towers, which house university faculty. The residential part of the complex became a co-op under the Mitchell Lama program and was reserved for affordable housing.
Under the current lease, in which the co-op pays NYU $28,400 a year, rents in 2014 were going to be reset to 6 percent of the land’s market value, which would have meant a sizable rent increase, according to NYU.
“This agreement preserves 505 LaGuardia as affordable housing into the foreseeable future and demonstrates NYU’s commitment to work with its neighbors to preserve and improve the Greenwich Village neighborhood,” said Lynne Brown, NYU Senior Vice President.
NYU’s efforts won praise from local elected officials for allowing long-time Village residents to afford living there.
“I am thrilled that we now have an agreement that will protect residents and preserve this vital affordable housing in the heart of Manhattan,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer called 505 LaGuardia Pl. “one of the last bastions of middle-class housing” in the Village.
“I am pleased that the residents of 505 LaGuardia have reached a deal on extending their land lease and hope this deal will ensure their continued affordability in perpetuity," Stringer said.
The deal follows the Council’s approval of NYU’s unrelated 2031 expansion plan for Greenwich Village last week, after Chin cut a deal to reduce the size of the project by nearly 20 percent.
