Residents of Electchester, the Flushing housing complex built by Local 3 of the Electrical Workers Union, may be in for a real shock if Mayor Bloomberg gets his way.
Since mid-August, the City Council has been working on “Resolution 1569-A.” The proposal restores a tax break that expired in 1998 and was restored to many other affordable co-ops in 2005.
The council reportedly thought they had mayoral support to give Electchester the same 50-year property tax break other affordable co-ops got until their last hearing.
On Tuesday, February 10, the council’s Committee on Housing Buildings got the jolt.
Joseph Rosenberg of the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) declared, “The administration, while supporting affordable housing, can not support giving Electchester a tax exemption in this challenging fiscal climate.”
According to Rosenberg, “the total cost… would be $109 million.”
The 2,500-unit, “limited dividend cooperative housing development,” was begun in 1949 with union pension funds, under the direction of their Business Manager, Harry Van Arsdale, Jr. It was built in three phases and is three companies First, Third and Fifth Housing.
The Electchester Housing Companies, as are many other union-built housing, are “limited dividend” co-ops and received “shelter rent tax exemptions” to make them more affordable.
Unlike many other union-built co-ops, Electchester hewed closely to the “union benefit” concept in accepting applicants until recently, in part because it was privately financed and in part because Van Arsdale lived there for many years. More recently, young families rather than union retirees are becoming the typical shareholder.
“A drastic rise in the carrying costs and maintenance fees of the residents over the last several years of nearly 30 percent, [is] threatening the affordability and possibly forcing Electchester to go private,” according to Councilmember Thomas White, Jr.
“The cost to the City as a whole would be the potential loss of 2,500 units of housing for working class New Yorkers, the loss of tax revenue derived from Electchester’s 10,000 residents, and finally the cost of having to replace the 2,500 units of housing with HPD funded projects which cost around $22,000 per unit,” White pointed out.
The resolution doesn’t require Mayor Bloomberg’s signature according to White, who said, “This is a chance for the City Council to preserve and maintain affordable housing within the city.”
