Deal on Stalled Condo Project Is First Under a City Program

In the summer of 2009, city officials began a $20 million program that would allow developers to convert stalled condominium sites into moderate-income housing. The initial response was tepid, as many developers and investors clung to the hope that the New York housing market would rebound. [ Read More...]

Idle Land Finds a Purpose as Farms for Solar Power

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Since the economic downturn, residents and businesses have been looking for ways to use real estate that may no longer appeal to mall developers or home builders. One option is to build solar energy farms, where thousands of solar panels convert the sun’s energy into electricity. [ Read More...]

UAI's Historic Restoration of 87th Precinct in Brooklyn Published in Period Homes Magazine

Historic 43 Herbert Street in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn has existed since 1881 under several guises. Until the 1970s, the red-brick Romanesque Revival structure was used as the station house for the NYPD's 87th precinct, and then until the end of 1999, as a base for police narcotics operations. To the community's dismay, the landmarked George Ingram-designed building was then abandoned, despite remaining under the jurisdiction of Citywide Administrative Services. It gradually fell into disrepair over the next decade, so much so that it became a favorite location for crime dramas.  ( Read more....)

In first, stalled condos reborn as cheap rentals

 Nearly two years after unveiling its $20 million Housing Asset Renewal Program, the city announced Tuesday that it has closed on its first deal to convert a stalled condo project in Brooklyn into affordable housing units.
The project at 382 Lefferts Ave. was designed as a 26-unit condo building, but like many others it hit the rocks during the financial collapse in the fall of 2008. Under HARP, the building will now become a 46-unit affordable rental building, open to renters with an annual income of up to $55,000 for a single person, or $79,200 for a family of four. The project is now expected to be completed in 2013. (Continue Reading...)

Citywide Foreclosure Rates Highest In Brooklyn, Study Finds

The city's foreclosure rate last year was highest in the East New York and Starrett City sections of Brooklyn, a new study finds, spotlighting a troubling growth in foreclosed properties across the state.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says that while the number of properties involved in new foreclosures across the state dropped from 2009 to 2010, the number of properties remaining in some stage of the process still continues to grow. 

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A Trend-Setting Building With a Small Carbon Footprint Grows in Brooklyn

A contemporary, gray apartment house on Grand Street in Brooklyn is one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the city -- and may be a symbol of the future of New York architecture. The recently completed building in Williamsburg is the first of its kind in New York City.

Carbon emissions from buildings account for 75 percent of the city's total carbon emissions, but so-called Passive Houses make use of a new architectural trend that relies on thick insulation, air-tightness and warmth from the sun to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of buildings, cutting energy usage by 90 percent. [ Read More ]

A Red Flag on Reverse Mortgages

It is the saddest of paradoxes: a government-backed financial maneuver intended to free up extra money for struggling older people turns out to have left some widows and widowers on the brink of foreclosure.
This week, AARP sued the Housing and Urban Development Departmentover a handful of reverse mortgagesgone awry. Lenders, following the letter of one of HUD’s rules, are requiring newly widowed people who want to stay in their homes to pay off the balance of their loans quickly, even if it is much more than the value of the home. Because they can’t (or won’t), the lenders are foreclosing. 


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New Worries for Buyers Seeking Mortgages

After months of having her hopes dashed as swiftly as they were raised, viewing nearly 40 apartments and cycling through three different brokers, Deborah Herman finally found the perfect New York City home.

The moment she stepped into the two-bedroom apartment at 59th Street and First Avenue, with its oversized windows and sweeping views of the Queensboro Bridge, she just knew. [ Read More ]

Obama's Proposed Budget Changes

Enterprise recently reviewed the Obama budget and noted the proposed budget changes to housing and community development programs. [ View Budget ]

No Vacancy: Why Empty Condos Aren't Becoming Affordable Housing

In May 2009 City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and New York City’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (HPD) unveiled the Housing Asset Renewal Plan (HARP). Politically, it sounded great. The idea was to kill two birds with one stone: Build much-needed affordable housing while at the same time heading off the potential blight represented by what Quinn described as “tarnished trophies of the building boom.” The $20 million initiative provides developers and banks incentives to turn unused condo units into middle-income housing. [ Continue Reading... ]

The Promise of Seward Park: SPURA Takes a Step Forward

Community leaders recently voted overwhelmingly to support a development plan for the area.  Considered the largest tract of fallow land within the Lower East Side and possibly all of Manhattan, the site has long been a symbol of urban planning gone wrong.  For the first time in decades, the promise of fulfilling the plan's original mandate - to build affordable housing - is real.  Read More.

President Obama proposes panels to sell off unnecessary government real estate.

Today, 14,000 government buildings and structures are considered excess.  President Barack Obama is proposing the creation of a panel that will recommend how the federal government can sell off properties it no longer needs, an administration official said Wednesday.  The board's work will bring in $15 billion in its first three years. Read More.