Market Reports

To Increase Affordable Housing, New York State Must Make Changes

by Taylor Williams October 9, 2024

By Jason Penighetti, Esq., and Carol Rizzo, Esq. of Forchelli Deegan Terrana Together with high rent and exorbitant property values, the real property taxes that fund necessary services in New York State make housing affordability a significant concern for low- and middle-income residents. To ensure a sufficient supply of affordable housing, the state must address the ad valorem levy, whereby taxes are derived from a property’s market value. This article examines the critical interplay between New York’s property tax policies and housing affordability. While some taxing mechanisms hinder the development and availability of affordable housing, adjustments and a few additions to those practices have the potential to promote the affordable sector. Exemptions, Incentives New York’s real property tax system supports a complex framework of entities that rely significantly upon property tax levies to generate revenue and fund their budgets. Property taxes, assessed at the local level, support essential services such as public schools, police departments, libraries, highways, fire districts, open space preservation, out-of-county college tuition and the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority, among others. To encourage the development of affordable housing and ease the burden that real property taxes can impose on developers and owners in the sector, New …

October 9, 2024

Affordable Housing Market Reports Multifamily New York Northeast Northeast Market Reports

A Developer’s Thoughts on Recent Changes to New York Laws Regarding Rent-Stabilized Apartments

by Taylor Williams September 11, 2024

By Francis Greenburger, founder, chairman & CEO, Time Equities Inc. The recent changes to New York laws regarding rent-stabilized apartments, included in the 2024 budget legislation and signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul, are a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, the step is so small that the effect will be the same as standing still. Much of the initial commentary on 2024 housing law updates was about the so-called “good cause eviction” provisions, which have little to do with eviction but are instead a rebranding of rent control. In 2019, the legislature made significant changes to the rules governing rent-stabilized apartments. Most legislators who voted for this bill undoubtedly hoped to help New York State meet its affordable housing needs, but the opposite has happened. Thousands of low-cost, rent-stabilized apartments have since become vacant and remain so. Many of these apartments were occupied by tenants or families for 40 years or more. Apartments require capital investments periodically, and expectations for housing change dramatically over long periods. Renovating these units to meet modern standards requires significant investment, often mandated by housing code. Until the changes, building owners were willing to make these investments because they were permitted to increase …

September 11, 2024

Market Reports New York Northeast Northeast Market Reports Retail

Stability Returns to New York City Retail Market

by Taylor Williams December 7, 2023

By Taylor Williams Across Manhattan’s major retail corridors and pockets, leasing agents, operators and owners are all gaining greater clarity on what levels of rent various submarkets can bear and, by extension, how much spaces are truly worth. After three years of disruptions of the public health and financial variety — each devastating in its own right — a reset of sorts is a major windfall for the country’s largest and arguably most dynamic retail market. Closing deals is challenging enough when all parties are on the same page and the economy is stable. When markets are going through tumultuous phases of discovery in which perceived valuations of spaces fluctuate wildly, negotiations tend to flame out even more quickly — if they even get going at all. “A year ago in Manhattan, you could have two adjacent stores, and one might have been asking for $120 per square foot while the other wanted $220 per square foot,” says Chase Welles, partner at TSCG, an Atlanta-based brokerage and consulting firm that is active in New York City. “There’s certainly more definition relative to last year, and the range of asking rents in each submarket has narrowed.” “The market has become more …

December 7, 2023

Market Reports New York Northeast Northeast Market Reports

New York’s Small Business Lodging Crackdown — Another Ripple from a Big Wave

by Taylor Williams November 29, 2023

By Pam Knudsen, senior director of tax compliance services, Avalara While the dust has scarcely settled from a landmark ruling in New York City resulting in a massive crackdown on short-term rentals (STRs), the full extent of the fallout from the decision has yet to be fully grasped by many — and perhaps even by the city itself. Under the terms of Local Law 18, a resolution that passed earlier this year, hosts and owners of short-term rentals, including Airbnb, are now subject to tighter and stricter regulations. These include limits on numbers of guests, requirements to register with the city and obligations to more closely monitor guest behavior, among other regulations. The effective ban on short-term rentals will have considerable consequences on local economies, and more than anyone, it’s small lodging businesses that stand to be impacted by the resulting wave. But to fully understand the major impact this ban has on small businesses, we must first acknowledge that STRs should rightly be considered small businesses themselves. Much like any other small business, STRs are required by most communities to be licensed, registered and compliant with tax collection and remittance. Furthermore, the hosts and managers behind STRs operate in …

November 29, 2023

Market Reports New York Northeast Northeast Market Reports Retail

New York City Retail Market Enters Phase of Discovery

by Taylor Williams December 15, 2022

By Taylor Williams The New York City retail market is currently functioning like an episode of The Price Is Right. Developers, investors, brokers and operators are all trying to attach fair values to rents and sales prices for spaces of all sizes and submarkets. But after a tumultuous period marked by a global pandemic and record inflation, followed by a string of severe interest rate hikes, accurately assigning those numbers is easier said than done — at least in some submarkets. According to data from JLL, at the end of the third quarter, the average rent throughout New York City was $290 per square foot, down 5.3 percent year over year. That figure represents an improvement from the second quarter of 2022, when rents posted a 12 percent decline on a year-over-year basis. In addition, JLL’s data shows that 58 new leases were signed in the third quarter. While that figure marks a decline of 13 percent from the second quarter, it also constitutes an increase of 7.4 percent on a year-over-year basis. These numbers suggest that after retail leasing and sales completely stagnated in 2020 due to an unprecedented public health crisis, the market corrected sharply in 2021 and …

December 15, 2022

Market Reports New York Northeast Northeast Market Reports

Looming Infrastructure Investments in New York City Offer Hope for Job Creation, Middle Class

by Taylor Williams November 1, 2022

By Lou Coletti, president & CEO, Building Trades Employers Association In the 1930s, the United States was in the throes of the Great Depression. Millions of people lost their jobs, and savings were obliterated overnight. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt seized the opportunity to bring the country back from the brink of economic collapse, creating the Works Progress Administration to put 8.5 million Americans to work building new schools, roads, bridges and water systems. In 2020, the country faced a similar shock to the system as COVID-19 locked down our cities, shuttered businesses and sent entire populations into isolation for months on end, only to contend with a maze of rules and restrictions as the economy reopened. Almost three years later, major metropolises like New York City have an unprecedented opportunity to rebuild both the physical infrastructure and social fabric of their respective regions. Much like in the days of the Great Depression, the construction industry has a key role to play in rebuilding our physical and social infrastructure. This time, however, it’s imperative that we prioritize equity, not only within individual projects but also within the industry at large. The combination of economic upheaval caused by COVID-19 and the …

November 1, 2022

Market Reports New York Northeast Northeast Market Reports

Net-Lease Tenants in New York Can Appeal Property Tax Assessments

by Taylor Williams September 26, 2022

By Jason Penighetti, attorney, Koeppel Martone & Leistman LLC In a far-reaching decision, New York’s highest court has affirmed the rights of tenants under a commercial net lease to protest assessments and reduce their real property tax burden. The ruling reversed a State Supreme Court dismissal of a petition on the grounds that only a property’s owner can file an administrative grievance with the Board of Assessment Review. In a net lease, the tenant is responsible for paying real estate taxes and other expenses stated in the lease. In the matter of DCH Auto vs. Town of Mamaroneck, the Court of Appeals in June 2022 published a unanimous decision stating that tenants contractually obligated to pay real estate taxes and authorized to protest assessments may file tax appeals even when they do not hold title to the underlying real estate. Restoring a Precedent DCH Auto operated a car dealership in a net leased property in Mamaroneck, New York. Its lease with the owner required DCH to pay the property’s real estate taxes in addition to rent. Commercial tenants with this type of lease commonly file tax appeals to correct excessive tax bills and mitigate operating costs. These occupiers include retailers …

September 26, 2022

Market Reports New York Northeast Northeast Market Reports Retail

New York City’s Retail Investment Market is Poised for Greater Activity

by Taylor Williams August 1, 2022

By Brent Glodowski, director, capital markets group, Avison Young Conditions are looking up for retail real estate investment in New York City. In one sense, “up” is the only way to go for a sector that has been bumping along the bottom of a trough. But with inflation tempering investors’ recent fascination with multifamily and industrial properties, retail also offers opportunities to acquire price-corrected assets when those other property types hover near cyclical peaks. Retail’s Head Start New York’s retail real estate market was already suffering from changing consumer tendencies when COVID-19 arrived and thrust many retailers and their landlords into a full-blown crisis. Even when government-ordered shutdowns eased, remote work policies drained office buildings of the customer bases that had supported swaths of restaurants, shops and entertainment businesses. Home-bound workers became a redistributed daytime population, shifting demand for meal delivery and other retail to new areas. Hundreds of small businesses went under, leaving vacant storefronts in their wake. Some retailers altered business plans to serve shifting customer bases that had developed new, pandemic-influenced consumption practices. Landlords with vacancies to fill turned to traditional strategies, such as relocating tenants from out-of-the-way spaces to fill their most visible storefronts. Property owners …

August 1, 2022

Market Reports New York Northeast Northeast Market Reports Retail

Luxury Retail Along Manhattan’s Madison Avenue Shifts from Rebounding to Thriving

by Taylor Williams July 1, 2022

By Joe Aquino, president, JAACRES When Barneys New York department store closed in 2020, we saw a dramatic relocation of luxury retail on Madison Avenue to the south, apparently with a common goal of establishing better proximity to East 57th Street. Prior to that event, many luxury brands enjoyed a shop within a shop at Barneys, plus another store on the corridor, usually further uptown. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this stretch of Madison Avenue was so tight for space that we saw East 59th Street, a major side street, securing tenants like Dior, Bathing Ape and Balmain. During the pandemic’s lockdown phases, retail vacancy rose dramatically, even in the most desirable areas. Now, post-pandemic, we see spaces along Madison Avenue getting filled by new and established luxury retailers ready to make a statement. Here are some of the key transactions that have either been recently completed or are in progress: Givenchy just left its cozy quarters at 749 Madison Ave. at the southeast corner of 65th Street to take the southeast corner at 625 Madison Ave. Versace will open in Givenchy’s place this fall. Wolford, a maker of luxury seamless tights, took the Lalique store at 607 Madison Ave. …

July 1, 2022

Market Reports New York Northeast Northeast Market Reports

New York City Tax Assessments Disregard Reality

by Taylor Williams March 9, 2022

By Joel Marcus of Marcus & Pollack LLP New York City has published three tax-year assessments since COVID-19 swept into our world. The New York City Tax Commission and New York City Law Department have had ample opportunity to reflect and refine their thinking on those assessments. The disease broke out in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and soon spread around the world. Most of New York City noticed its impact in February and March of 2020 as businesses shut down at an accelerating rate, warranting government mandates and additional closures. So, what did New York City do for the 2020-2021 tax year? It significantly raised tax assessments. The Tax Commission and other review bodies refused to base their valuations upon the devastating catastrophic effects of COVID-19 that had ravished the city. Why do this? The answer is technical. New York City values real estate on a taxable status date, which is Jan. 5 each year. On Jan. 5, 2020, COVID-19 did not exist in assessors’ evaluation process. Nor did it exist in the review of assessments later in the year. Employment restrictions, mask mandates and lockdown requirements made it impossible to operate theaters, hotels, restaurants and many other businesses. …

March 9, 2022

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