Landmarks Names New Executive Director

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has named Sarah Carroll as its new Executive Director. As Executive Director, Carroll will oversee LPC’s research and preservation divisions and manage the Commission’s budget, operations, technology, staffing, communications, and public outreach. She will serve as primary advisor to the Chair in developing and implementing agency policies and strategic plans.


Variance Approved For Metropolitan College’s Bronx Campus

College sited educational facilities in an M1-1 zone.  On June 24, 2014, the Board of Standards and Appeals granted a use variance to Metropolitan College of New York, a non-profit educational institution headquartered at 431 Canal Street in Manhattan, to use the entire second floor of a new building at 459 East 149th Street at the corner of Brook Avenue in the Bronx for educational purposes.  The site is in the shape of a … <Read More>


Mayor de Blasio’s Land Use Appointments Carousel Continues

Mayor de Blasio has re-structured the City’s land use administrative hierarchy to further his affordable housing agenda. On July 22, 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio nominated Margery Perlmutter to serve as Chair of the Board of Standards and Appeals. This was the Mayor’s latest appointment  to City land-use positions, all of which will bear heavily on the Mayor’s expansive affordable housing agenda, a ten-year plan designed to preserve some 200,000 units of affordable housing.


REBNY Issues New Report on Landmarking and Housing Production

REBNY report shows that housing production, particularly affordable housing, is drastically lower in landmarked areas in the five boroughs. In 2013, the Real Estate Board of New York conducted a study which showed that nearly 28 percent of Manhattan is landmarked and that fewer than 2 percent of new housing units built in Manhattan over a ten-year time period (2003-2012) were constructed on landmarked properties. On July 1, 2014, REBNY released a new report which … <Read More>


The Rooftops Conference NYC 2014

Rooftop SM

The Rooftops Conference NYC 2014, to be held on Friday, April 25, will be our fourth annual symposium focused on the not-for-profit sector and the role of real estate–owned, leased, or hosted physical space–in the operations, financial performance, and achievement of mission by not-for-profit organizations of all sizes and mission types.

Panelists and presenters from the not-for-profit sector, government, the real estate industry, and the professions will explore diverse themes of direct relevance to … <Read More>


HDC Defends NYC Landmark Preservation

Last week CityLand published a Guest Commentary from Steven Spinola, President of REBNY.  Simeon Bankoff, Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council submitted this commentary in response. 

In his recent editorial in CityLand, Steven Spinola, the longtime President of the Real Estate Board of New York, suggested a number of ways which the Landmarks Law needs to be reformed to adhere to its “spirit.”  This is a curious statement that warrants further examination.  … <Read More>