Last week, Mayor Bloomberg introduced a bill that would require owners of Class A multiple unit residential buildings to disclose where smoking is permitted or prohibited inside the units, outside areas within 15 feet of entrances and doorways as well as the common areas, balconies, courtyards and rooftops.

Current trends to regulate smoking in public spaces, such as in parks and restaurants, have sparked interest in pursuing non-smoking policies for residential buildings. Additionally, New York City’s Smoke Free Air Act already requires that individuals cannot smoke in public places, including the common areas of a multiple dwelling such as hallways, elevators and stairs.

The proposed legislation put forward by the Mayor’s office would require buildings to create a smoking policy if they do not already have one.  There are several concerns with the legislation.

• In the current draft of the bill, buildings would have to comply within 90 days.   This is an unrealistic turnaround time for condo and coop boards. They would need at least 6 months to confer with their attorneys and have any smoking policy approved by the board members.
• Under the legislation, the proposed notification requirement is the responsibility of many parties including owners, managers and leasing agents.  In actuality, given the various ownership and management structures in New York City real estate, each lease and sale transactions can be structured differently and can make it difficult to clearly delineate responsibility.  It may be straightforward to designate responsibility in an owner managed and leased rental building, but it may be less clear if a condo owner is subletting his/her own apartment.
• Additionally, the City is seeking to impose hefty violations if this notification is not in place. We question the need for a complicated fine schedule.

REBNY will be working with the Mayor’s office and City Council to ensure that any bill that is passed is practicable for building owners and managers.

Related to the smoking issue, the Best Practices Subcommittee of REBNY’s Residential Management Council created a guide that serves as a starting point to help managing agents best inform their buildings and boards if they are considering implementing a no-smoking policy. This Subcommittee, which finalized the guide at the beginning of April, laid the groundwork to open communication and provided insight into addressing this issue.

Under existing city, state, and federal law, owners of rental apartment buildings are free to adopt a non-smoking policy with regard to the individual residential units that are free market. Currently, there are no laws in New York prohibiting smoking within an apartment in residential buildings, but implementing a smoking ban could lower maintenance costs and insurance rates.

Here are some highlights from REBNY’s guide for implementing a smoking ban in residential buildings:

Rentals

A landlord or owner can ban smoking in the building for each new non-rent-regulated tenant.  However, the landlord would have to add a rider to that effect to the lease.

In the event that an existing tenant has smoke emanating from his or her apartment and other tenants have registered complaints, the landlord may be able to use that as a basis to attempt to terminate the smoker’s lease.

Coops

An outright ban on smoking would most likely require an amendment to the proprietary lease, which would require the affirmative vote of the owners of a supermajority (typically two-thirds or 75 percent) of the shares.

The Board of Directors may consider whether the smoker’s conduct rises to the level of objectionable conduct sufficient to terminate the shareholder’s proprietary lease.  The Board of Directors could also use the prohibition against “objectionable odors” emanating from an apartment found in most proprietary leases to attempt to terminate the smoker’s proprietary lease.

Condos

Condominium’s By-Laws can generally be amended by the affirmative vote of the owners.  The Board of Managers has the ability to reject any purchaser who permits smoking in the unit.  The Board of Managers can also indicate a specific date in the future at which point no resident may smoke in the building including within the unit.

If the Board of Managers has the authority under the By-Laws to fine a unit owner who smokes in a unit and the smoke enters another unit, it may impose such a fine.  Absent such a provision, the Board or offended unit owner could sue the owner who smokes for monetary damages and an order enjoining the owner from smoking.

The Guide titled, Issues to Consider-Smoking and Second Hand Smoking in Multi-Unit Residential Buildings, is easily accessed on the member’s only side of REBNY.com.  Go to ‘Just for Managers’ and click on ‘RMC Subcommittees” for the full document.

From REBNY memo April 25, 2012.

4/26/12  Useful  Vocabulary for Building Watchers:  Here are a few  architectural definitions that anyone who wants fluency in New York architecture will find useful.  Read the full story in the New York Times  

4/26/12  Prudential Douglas Elliman releases “The Elliman Report:  Long Island Sales 1Q 2012”:  Mild winter weather brought consumers into the market earlier than usual, causing the number of signed contracts in the Long Island housing market to jump from year ago levels. Housing prices were mixed, as buyers of lower priced properties took advantage of record low mortgage rates. Although properties took slightly longer to sell, listing inventory fell to its lowest first quarter total in six years. Despite the slow improvement in the national economy, we are encouraged by the state of the market in 2012.  See the full report 

4/26/12:  Prudential Douglas Elliman releases “The Elliman Report:  Hamptons & North Fork Sales 1Q 2012”:  The Hamptons and North Fork housing markets showed stability in both price and sales activity. Just as we have seen in prior quarters, the high end of the market continued to show strength. While it took somewhat longer to sell a typical property this quarter, listing inventory continued to decline. Considering the slow pace of our national economic recovery and tight credit, the East End housing market has continued to hold its own.  See the full report 

4/27/12:   Space Shuttle Enterprise’s Historic Flyover Wow’s New Yorkers: Did you see it?  Hundreds of space shuttle shuttle fans braved the chilly temperatures and biting wind Friday Morning along the Hudson River here to catch a glimpse of NASA’s prototype orbiter as it flew past the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum it will soon call home.  See the full article on Yahoo! News 

4/27/12:  Threats, stormy Exits and…:  The setting for the closing on an apartment in the East 50s was a lawyer’s office. Things seemed to be going well between the sellers until the wife found out the price her husband had received for the apartment.  This is New York City, where real estate transactions can literally take on the trappings of a blood sport. Unlike most other parts of the country, it is a place where lawyers are invariably involved in the transaction; at the very least, this increases the number of people around the table.  Read the full article in the New York Times 

4/27/12  Brokers See Bright Future for 2012’s Residential Real Estate Market: The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) has released the results of its Residential Brokers Survey for the first quarter of 2012.  With the unseasonably warm weather and favorable market conditions, brokers saw an uptick in activity this quarter and are optimistic about next quarter.  Of the brokers surveyed, 69 percent reported that they thought the first quarter of 2012 was better than the previous quarter.  Additionally, 76 percent of brokers reported that they expect the second quarter of 2012 to be better than the first, a 16 percent increase from last quarter. 

 Their optimism was based on the improving activity in the market.  The survey found that 70 percent of brokers reported completing executed contracts of sale this quarter, a nine percent increase from last quarter.  Another highlight from the first quarter of 2012 was that 74 percent of brokers reported closing rental transactions at or above asking prices, which is a 13 percent increase from this time last year.  In addition, 26 percent of the brokers reported closing sales at or above asking price, a nine percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2011 and a 4 percent increase from the first quarter 2011.

 “Brokers feel changes in the market first and we count on them to help us gauge where the market is headed,” said REBNY President Steven Spinola.  “Based on the survey results, it’s clear that broker’s optimism is coming from an improving market and that their view that 2012 will be a strong year for New York City real estate is justified.” 

 The survey also found a near perfect record of 99 percent of brokers reporting that they received a coop board approval in less than 90 days from the time a completed coop board application was submitted.

 Similar to last quarter’s findings the top features/amenities this quarter were: 1) doorman building, 2) laundry in unit, 3) private storage space, and 4) on-site fitness center.
 The survey was sent to REBNY’s Residential Broker Members.  404 brokers took the survey this quarter.  See the REBNY Q1 2012 Residential Broker’s Survey Results

4/16/12  The world’s most expensive one-bedroom condo?:  And you think New York Apartments are expensive?   A one-bedroom penthouse condo was listed recently in Tokyo for 1.8 Billion yen roughly $22 Million.  The apartment is 4,400 square feet and loaded with amenities.  Read the full article at Yahoo! Real Estate

 4/19/12:  Prudential Douglas Elliman Releases Brooklyn Sales Market Report for 1QTR 2012:  The Brooklyn market continued to enjoy stabilizing prices and a steady level of new development activity. Mortgage rates dropped to record lows, which helped lower priced co-op sales retain greater market share. Listing inventory fell below the five-year average, in turn tightening the listing discount negotiated between buyers and sellers. Despite the economic challenges facing the region, Brooklyn continued to be one of the better performing housing markets in New York City.  Get the report from Prudential Douglas Elliman here.   

4/19/12:  Prudential Douglas Elliman Releases Queens Sales Market Report for 1QTR 2012:  Record low mortgage rates helped create a surge in lower priced co-op sales in the fourth quarter that continued into the new year. This trend combined with the decline in listing inventory has brought some stability to the market. Although prices softened somewhat over the past year due to tight credit and a weak economy, we are encouraged with the progress of the Queens housing market so far this year.  Get the report from Prudential Douglas Elliman here.

4/19/12  Rental website Rentenna.com seeking “hottest doorman” in the city:  Rentenna.com, a website for locating New York City rental apartments, is sponsoring an unconventional beauty contest, the Wall Street Journal reported — for New York City’s doormen. The start-up began accepting nominations for the city’s most attractive doormen last week, the Journal said, and more than three dozen have been put forward by their tenants so far.  Get all the details at The Real Deal

3/14/12  Rent Study Finds NYC Cheaper Than Long Island, New Jersey:  “In what will be a surprise to many New Yorkers, the city isn’t the most expensive place in the country to rent a modest two-bedroom apartment, a new report released has found. In fact, it’s not even the most expensive rental market in the region.”  Read the full article in the Wall Street Journal

3/15/12  Pension Reform Announced:  “Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos today announced the passage of a sweeping pension reform plan that will save state and local governments more than $80 billion over the next 30 years.  New York City taxpayer savings will account for $21 billion of this savings.  Our legislative leaders have shown extraordinary determination and deserve immense credit for addressing the critical fiscal challenges facing state and local government.”  Read the Governor’s Press Release and Mayor Bloomberg’s Statement

 3/15/12  NY State lawmakers to allow casino gambling:  “New York state lawmakers have agreed to legalize public casinos and will amend the state constitution to allow seven new casinos to operate, lawmakers said on Wednesday.”  Read the full article at Reuters.com

3/6/12 NYC sees biggest building permit rise since crash:   Number of permits for demolition work soars nearly 37% in the first two months of year, while the number of permits to put up new buildings jumps almost 43%. Levels are still well below pre-2008 peaks.  Read more about it at Crain’s New York.

3//8/12  Apartment bargains melted away in warm Feb.:  Unseasonable temperatures bring out more customers and landlords respond by cutting concessions and even hiking some rents. A “disappointi9ng season” for tenants seen.  Read the full article at Crain’s New York

3/8/12  Stunning gains for city economy:  The city economy grew nearly twice as fast in 2011 as initially thought, according to data released Thursday, and jobs boomed in January.  Read the article at Crain’s New York.

3/9/12  Crumbling East 81st Street Pedestrian Bridge Set for Makeover:  Months after cutting the ribbon on a stainless steel pedestrian bridge at East 78th Street, the city is moving forward with tackling the next decaying walkway connecting the neighborhood to the East River waterfront.  Read the article at DNAinfo.com 

2/27/12  Buy this Queens site, get free East Side apartments:  “The odd bonus that comes with purchase of a Flushing, Queens site is not in infomercial-style marketing ploy.  It’s the collateral on a bad loan.”  Read about it at Crain’s NY.

3/1/12 NYC stuck on slow boat:  “The economic news just gets better and better.  In the final quarter of 2011, total output of goods and services expanded at an annual clip of 3%, according to Commerce Department data out Wednesday.  In New York, however, the news is not nearly so rosy, and the reason why can be summed up in two words:  ‘Wall Street’.”   Read the full article at Crain’s NY The RED Wrap.

3/1/12 Celeb chef Emeril slashes price on Townhouse:  “One celebrity chef is betting the onset of the spring season will have prospective luxury property buyers on the hunt for a sizzling-hot bargain. Star chef and television personality Emeril Lagasse is planning to reduce the asking price of his Lenox Hill townhouse by a cool $1.5 million, or 10 percent, to ‘take advantage of the spring market’. ” Read all about it at TheRealDeal.com.

3/2/12  Manhattan population to jump by 2030, putting strain on housing:  “While the demand for New York real estate remains somewhat unquenchable for the meantime, it’s possible the city could grow so crowded in the future that it may beocme a turn-off for prospective city dwellers”.  Read the full article at TheRealDeal.com.

2/10/12:  More rooms at more inns loom in NY’s future - “City saw at least a dozen new hotels bow in 2011, with no less than 40 more expected to follow in the next 30 months; YOTEL was the only addition to the Top 25 hotels, with 669 rooms.”  Read the whole article at Crain’s New York.

2/14/12:  Uzbekistan Cancels Valentine’s Day – Who needs love when you can celebrate the birthday of Mughal Emperor Babur?  Uzbekistan has canceled Valentine’s Day — or at least a yearly concert by Rayhan, a popular singer who traditionally croons during Feb. 14 celebrations.  Instead, the government is trying to push the appreciation of Babur, who’s a descendent of Genghis Kahn and helped spread an empire across South and Central Asia.  Basically, its a rebellion against Western influences.  Instead of candy hearts and valentines, the government will schedule commemorative readings and poetry festivals.

2/14/12:  Big Deal Rental:  Just-sold CPW mansion to hit rental market for $110,000 a month – “A 13-room townhouse at 247 Central Park West recently sold by  the former president of handbag company Coach, is now set to hit the rental market in the next few days for a staggering $110,000 per month”  Read more about it at The Real Deal

2/14/12  Want a Date?  Buy a Home:  In a survey of 1,000 single people, more than a third of women and 18% of men said they would much rather date a homeowner than a renter.  Read about it at CNNMoney.com

2/16/12  Big Deal Brazil Booms and Brokers Smile:  “Many of the Brazilian buyers in New York are professionals in their 30s and 40s, often tied to commodities or the finance sector, which has made many Brazilians rich from a flurry of I.P.O.’s in recent years. Brazilians favor addresses along Central Park on the Upper East Side or in Midtown near Lincoln Center, where many have season tickets, brokers say.”  Read about it in the New York Times

2/22/12  A tour of beer heiress’ UES apartment, on market for $14M:  :Beer heiress gives a tour of her New York City apartment at the Stanhope, on the Upper East Side, in a video from the New Yorker, via the Real Estalker blog.”  Read about it and see the video at the Real Deal.

2/22/12 MTA to make late-night house calls along Second Avenue Subway construction site:  “Rather than take Upper East Siders’ word, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials want to experience sleepless nights along Second Avenue for themselves. According to the New York Post, transit officials plan to make late-night visits to apartments near the Second Avenue Subway construction site that has elicited constant noise complaints from neighbors.”  Read more at the Real Deal

2/25/12  Subway Entrances? Not on Our Block:  “…fears running along 69th Street near Lexington Avenue, home to the Union Club, neo-Georgian homes and carriage houses. They are fears normally associated with the less-charming realities of urban life, like a homeless shelter or a late-night dive bar. But in this case, they are focused on something quite different: new entrances to a subway station.”  Read the whole article in the New York Times.

Starting on September 12, 2011 and continuing throughout a 4 week period, the firm collected minute-by-minute data for various pollutants at 10 locations between E 69^th and 87^th Streets.  The final report, revealed that most measured pollutants were below national air quality and industry standards. 

• High concentrations of one type of particulate matter were “attributed to local traffic emissions, other local sources such as commercial and residential boilers . . . with no significant contribution from blasting activities”, according to the report.
• Another spike during the 3 to 7 pm blasting period showed concentrations below acceptable levels to indicate no adverse health effects.

According to a statement released Thursday, MTA Capital Construction President Michael Horodniceanu  “Based on the results of the study, there are no concerns that Second Avenue Subway construction si causing any danger to the public’s health. We will continue to do everything we can to be a good neighbor as we complete this critically important project as quickly as possible.”

Several measures were implemented to mitigate the odors and dust :

• “Dust Bosses” that spray water mist to force the dust particles to settle within the “muck house” structure were installed in two of the structures.
• Wet burlap curtains were installed in the shafts to act as screening for dust.
• Permanently sealing some overhangs
• Installed additional vents
• Increased time between blasts to allow for dust and smoke to dissipate.

Residents agree these measures have improved the conditions, but lament the delay in implementation.

The study findings will be presented by the MTA to the Community Board 8’ Second Avenue Task Force at Hunter College, 695 Park Ave, West Building Lecture Hall Room, 714W on January 26, at 6:30 which we will be attending.

Excerpted from DNAInfo.com article by Amy Zimmer.

1/18/12:  ‘Medical Arms Race’ Spurs Massive Health Development on East Side:   “At a time when the city’s public hospitals are struggling and Brooklyn hospitals are facing possible closures, top-tier East Side institutions — including the Hospital for Special Surgery, NYU Langone Medical Center, Lenox Hill Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College and Mount Sinai Medical Center — could dramatically reshape the city’s landscape over the next five years as they expand their footprints, modernize and adapt to upcoming health care reforms.”  Read about it at DNAinfo.com

 1/21/12:  Chefs, Butlers, Marble Baths:  Hospitals Vie for the Affluent:  “Pampering and décor to rival a grand hotel, if not a Downton Abbey, have long been the hallmark of such “amenities units,” often hidden behind closed doors at New York’s premier hospitals.”  Read about it in the New York Times

1/22/12:  Massive, Exclusive Full Floor UES Co-op Wants $30M:  “It’s not every day when a unit at the fabled 2 East 67th Street comes onto the market, and this massive full floor unit is certainly impressive.”  See the floor plan and read about it at Curbed

1/24/12:  East River Underwater Turbines Give Jolt to City Power Grid:  Using underwater turbines in the East River off the coast of Roosevelt Island, Verdant Power will be electrifying New York with roughly 1 megawatt captured from the strait’s natural tidal currents — enough for an estimated 1,000 city homes.  Read about it at DNAinfo.com

1/25/12:  A-Rod sells his NYC condo for a considerable profit:  “According to the Wall Street Journal the New York Yankees third baseman has already received a contract for his 3,500-square-foot condo on the 35th floor of the Rushmore building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.”  Read about it at YAHOO! Sports

1/13/12:  From the New York Times:  Not for Vampires Only.  “Some New Yorkers seek dim, dark spaces that admit little sense of the throbbing city outside their doors.  Read about it in the New York Times.

1/16/12:  From the  New York Post:  Rents Soar as Apartments Dwindle:  “Manhattan rents soared 8.6 percent last year — reaching pre-2007-crash highs — while vacancy rates plummeted and residents grabbed apartments at a near-record pace, new industry reports show.  Read more about it in the New York Post.

 1/19/12: From Prudential Douglas Elliman:  Exclusive 4^th Quarter  2011 Queens Sales Market Report.  Get the full report