As you know, the current agreement expires June 30, and our hope and expectation is that an extension agreement will be concluded before that date. The GPTA rent stabilization team has been pushing for a resolution for the rent stabilization deal NOW, considering that the existing agreement expires shortly. We’ve pressed this point in recent days with numerous calls, texts and emails and conversations with our elected officials and/or their staffs and with BPCA President BJ Jones and V.P. Nick Sbordone. Most recently, on Saturday, May 23, we had a conversation with BJ Jones, who provided an update on the status. While the QRS negations are subject to a non-disclosure agreement that constrains the amount of information that Mr. Jones can share with us, our between-the-lines take-away from this most recent phone conversation is that a rent stabilization deal seems very close. However, it is unlikely that a deal will occur until June. In terms of scope of the new agreement, we believe that, at a minimum, it will cover all currently-stabilized tenants for a multi-year period into the future. Beyond that basic outline, we will need to await the final agreement.
Currently-stabilized tenants whose leases expire after July 31 and August 31 have been offered renewals at increases greater than those stated in the NYC Rent Stabilization Guidelines. GPTA has strongly advocated to BPCA and to our elected officials that any extension of the rent stabilization agreement should retroactively adjust any renewals that may have been signed by tenants before the extension agreement is finalized so that those renewals conform to rent stabilization increases. Although such retroactive treatment is our objective, until a rent stabilization extension agreement is achieved, we cannot predict what its terms will be.
As a result, tenants receiving a lease renewal offer today should be mindful of the deadline for responding to the offers and make a decision on whether to accept the offer within the stated deadline. Although the recent renewal offers appear to state that the response period for accepting a renewal is 30 days from receipt of the offer, Gateway Management has informed tenants who have inquired about the deadline that the deadline is in fact 30 days prior to lease expiration. For example, Management has stated that July 1 is the renewal response deadline for leases expiring July 31. We suggest that tenants who have questions about the renewal offer response deadline should contact Gateway Management.
GPTA is not advising tenants on how they should respond to renewal offers, but we note that it is likely that, if there is going to be an extension of rent stabilization, that extension will be agreed before July.
As soon as we have anything more concrete to offer, we will post an update here on our website and send an email blast to our mailing list.
