NEW YORK (AP) -- In its first foray into the
American real estate market, a British corporate giant that is spending more
than $200 million for dozens of buildings in Harlem encountered a storm of
protest Tuesday -- from immigrant tenants in the neighborhood.
"They have a plan to gentrify East Harlem. And that means rent
increases," said Juan Haro, head of the Movement for Justice in El
Barrio.
Protesting tenants pasted a giant letter onto the front door of a building
where they send their checks, urging the new landlord not to increase rents.
"Bienvenidos a El Barrio," said signs that the residents hoisted
to "welcome" their British landlord, for whom they had also left
flowers and fruits on the sidewalk. "Aqui estamos y no nos vamos,"
said the signs, meaning "We are here to stay and we won't go away."
The tenants were responding to last week's news that the London-based
investment bank Dawnay, Day Group was paying $225 million for the 47 buildings
in East Harlem and seven condominium units in the East Village.
Dawnay, Day has no telephone listing in New York. The company is
represented here by the Arent Fox LLP law firm, which offered a response to
protesters' fears about rents from Dawnay, Day director Iain Blakeley. He said
in London that "the company cannot displace tenants nor increase rents
above the legal regular increases if they are legitimate tenants in
occupation."
The Harlem buildings include more than 1,000 apartments and 55 commercial
properties just north of Central Park.
With Manhattan real estate prices skyrocketing, East Harlem has been a last
refuge for many people seeking affordable housing. The neighborhood has
welcomed people from around the country and world for the past century, but in
recent years has drawn developers looking for the last low-cost patches of
Manhattan.
The changes in East Harlem are only the latest in a spate of New York real
estate deals pitting working-class tenants against corporate forces.
Late last year, the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex of
11,000 apartments in Manhattan was sold for $5.4 billion, amid boisterous
protests.
Earlier this year, a developer tried to buy the country's largest federally
subsidized housing complex, Brooklyn's Starrett City. The $1.3 billion deal
was blocked by the federal government, which said the prospective buyer had
not demonstrated he could preserve the complex as affordable housing.
Many of the tenants in the affected buildings in Harlem are working-class
immigrants from Mexico and Ecuador who are paying about $1,000 a month for
one- and two-bedroom rent-stabilized apartments, Haro said.
Ana Laura Merino, from Puebla, Mexico, lives on 116th Street with her
7-year-old daughter and husband, who works in a bakery. "We won't go. The
landlord is powerful, but we want to stay and fight for our rights," she
said in Spanish.
On Tuesday in another part of East Harlem -- on Fifth Avenue at the edge of
Central Park -- residents there were also up in arms over a development
project.
A community garden they've tended for almost 20 years was bulldozed on
Tuesday to make way for luxury condominiums adjoining the new Museum for
African Art that is to open in 2009.
“There’s so much inventory out there that the buyer can pick and choose,” said Susan Sirles Fidler, a Realtor at Re/Max 10, Oak Lawn. But she cautioned, “The stuff that’s almost free is almost free because it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg to put it back together. It’s not buyer beware as much as buyer be smart.”
