2 ms·

So you cannot sell the building? Also you have to get all the tenants out to build, do you have buyouts? This seems like no one will run apartments.

• jrockway 3y ago
  I mean, it's the same as selling a rent-stabilized building today. No, you can't kick the tenants out when you sell. You often sell at a significant discount because of the problem to profitability that the tenants pose. This is fine. NYC is full of vacant land. You can kick cars out of a parking lot and turn it into a 50 story residential skyscraper without any problem. You can tear down nearly-abandoned office buildings and replace them with housing. Tearing down a building where people are happily living is completely unnecessary. Profitable? Sure, it can be. But the city is under no obligation to making housing profitable. Housing is infrastructure; does the city make a profit by charging tolls on roads? Nope! They don't need to; they exist for the public good, not for your 401(k) plan. Plenty of people are making TONS of money on brand-new buildings. In the 12 years I've lived here I've watched Downtown Brooklyn change from a forgotten wasteland to the home of the tallest building in Brooklyn. The neighborhood is full of $1M studio apartments (and up for more space) and they are sold before the building even breaks ground. People want new stuff and they can afford it. It doesn't have to come at the cost of existing residents.