As most of you know, if you’ve lived in Gateway Plaza since June 2009, you are protected by a rent stabilization agreement. That agreement expires in June 2020. What you may not know is that before 2009 – going all the way back to 1987 – EVERYONE at Gateway was protected by a rent stabilization agreement.
The Gateway Plaza Tenants Association (GPTA) is working with the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) and our elected officials to secure a renewal AND expansion of the rent stabilization agreement: We want the agreement expanded to cover ALL Gateway residents and we want the agreement extended until at least 2040.
The rent stabilization agreement is the result of the settlement of a lawsuit brought by GPTA in the mid-1980s against BPCA and the LeFrak Organization. The tenants alleged in that lawsuit that because Gateway was developed and constructed with public funds under the New York State Mitchell Lama program, BPCA was under an obligation to regulate the rents and to maintain Gateway as affordable housing. LeFrak acknowledged that Gateway’s rents should be regulated by a governmental authority, but claimed that the proper regulator was HUD, the federal housing agency. This was back during the Reagan Administration, when HUD took a hands-off approach to regulation.
GPTA, BPCA and LeFrak settled the lawsuit in 1987 by making an agreement that required all rent increases to be governed by the NYC Rent Stabilization Guidelines, while permitting the initial rents for a lease to be whatever the market would allow. This meant that if you could afford to live in Gateway when you moved in, you could probably afford to stay in Gateway for many years. The 1987 agreement covered all Gateway residents, no matter when they moved in.
The 1987 agreement had an original expiration date of 1993, but was extended several times until 2009. In 2009, however, the agreement was limited to cover only tenants who lived here as of the effective date of the agreement, which was June 20, 2009.
As the 2009 agreement is coming up on its 2020 expiration date, GPTA is working on another renewal: We want an extension to at least 2040, which is the current end date for LeFrak’s ground lease – and we want the agreement to once again cover ALL Gateway residents, no matter when they move in.