A week ago Sunday, the tenant association at 10 Stanton St. celebrated the opening of their new Thelma Burdock Community Room. The renovated space was just one of the concessions the tenants won from the building owner, who sold an adjoining parcel to developer Ian Schrager a few years ago for a high-end hotel and condo project.
Burdick, a leader of the Cooper Square Committee, was instrumental in the establishment of 10 Stanton as a bastion of affordable housing on the Lower East Side. U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, City Council member Margaret Chin, Cooper Square Committee co-founder Francis Goldin, Harvey Epstein of the Urban Justice Center and Community Board 3 Chairperson Gigi Li were all in attendance. Assemblyman Sheldon Silver was in Albany but stopped by the building a few days earlier to accept an award from the tenant association for supporting the group over the years.
A Public Hotel and 11 condominium apartments (starting at more than $7 million) are now being constructed at 215 Chrystie St., which was formerly the low-income housing development’s garden. As part of the deal to build the hotel, real estate mogul Ruby Schron agreed to extend 10 Stanton’s Section 8 affordable housing contract for 25 years. The tenant association, as well as Community Board 3, supported the development project in exchange for this guarantee, protecting 147 units of low income housing for years to come. The agreement also included a new playground and garden, an exercise room, computer lab and the community room.
It really should be big money which can afford it – to willingly provide subsidization like this – it can’t be legal that private owners are out of pocket because of the rent regulations having the laws changed and extended. I don’t see the advocates as personally shortchanged if at all the way they demand the regulated owners to be shortchanged.