By Bill Parry
Residents of the Astoria Houses are hoping Gov. Andrew Cuomo succeeds in his push to replace or restore the 421-a tax abatement.
When the program was allowed to expire in January, over a prevailing wage requirement that Cuomo demanded, The Durst Organization was forced to scale back its ambitious Hallets Cove mega-project to just the first building until 421-a was restored or a suitable replacement was found.
“It is such a special project for the community it is so important that it gets back on track,” said Claudia Coger, president of the Astoria Houses Resident Association. “Because of the derelict conditions here on Hallets Peninsula we were hoping that project would not only beautify our waterfront but make it a healthier place, too.”
Such developments have ground to a halt across the state since the 421-a tax exemption program, which provided tax abatements to residential developers in exchange for a larger number of below-market-rate apartments, expired in January and Albany lawmakers have been unable to replace it.
The New York Times reported last week that Cuomo “has offered developers and union officials a wage subsidy for construction workers in the hopes of reviving” 421-a. His proposal went to developers as a single-page memo after two weeks of secret negotiations between the governor’s office and the leaders of the Real Estate Board of New York and the Building and Construction Trades Council, the paper said.
“I can’t give any details other than there have been talks and we’ll be doing some more talking,” Gary LaBarbera, head of the Building and Construction Trades Council, said Tuesday.
Neither The Durst Organization, the developers of the 2,400 unit Hallets Point, nor John Mavroudis, the developer of the 1,723-unit Astoria Cove project, which has been shelved entirely, would comment.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is depending on 421-a or a replacement as an important piece of his affordable housing plan, is pleased to see talks under way and would support a replacement program as long as it does not cost the city’s housing plan.
“It’s good that people are realizing that the absence of 421-a is starting to really hurt in terms of the creation of affordable housing definitely,” de Blasio said. “If the state wants to subsidize wage levels for affordable housing, God bless them,. If that’s what the state thinks is the right thing to do with state money, of course, we can work with that.”
Cuomo needs to have a tax program in place to move forward on his own $2 billion affordable housing project.
“An affordable housing program by definition requires subsidy,” Cuomo said. “Whether you subsidize wages or you subsidize land or you subsidize the mortgage or you subsidize construction, it doesn’t matter. It’s a subsidy.”
Coger hopes it works and the entire Hallets Point development can be completed with its 2,400 units, 483 of them affordable. Residents of Astoria Houses were to have rental preference for 50 percent of those affordable apartments.
“It would have an enormous impact on us, and the return of 421-a would also impact the city as well,” Coger said.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
