Tag Archives: stpcv conversion

Letters to the editor, Oct. 9

CW, pols should help with Con Ed night noise

I’m writing to you at the suggestion of Sherman Sussman, whose complaints about noise from the Con Ed plant were recently the subject of an article in T&V.

I live in the same building as he does and would like to see Stuyvesant Town management and our local representatives (such as Dan Garodnick) take the issue of noise at the southeast corner of Stuy Town seriously. There is a guard booth at the intersection of 14th Street and Avenue C that is never staffed.

If a guard were on duty, he or she could monitor the area for unnecessary noise and help to prevent it. Noise comes from trucks entering and leaving Con Ed at all times of night. It also comes from other traffic at this busy intersection, including many ambulance and fire truck sirens. And it comes from pedestrians who tend to feel that at this remote end of 14th St., they can yell, shout and let off steam at all hours. Finally, it comes from construction work, often associated with Con Ed.

I feel it is the duty of Stuy Town management, as a landlord renting living space at this intersection, and of the city government to make sure that sirens are not louder than they need to be, especially at night, that cars do not honk their horns due to traffic congestion (station a policeman, if needed, to help with traffic flow), that pedestrians do not make undue noise.

Finally, I am waiting for the day when city buses will become quieter. There is no reason why, in 2014, they need to sound like freight trains. I hope you will follow up on Mr. Sussman’s complaints and the issue of noise pollution at Stuy Town’s perimeters.

Sincerely,

Livia Tenzer, ST

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Guterman: Tenants should organize and demand conversion

By Sabina Mollot

Gerald Guterman, the landlord and developer who’s previously expressed an interest in bidding on Stuyvesant Town and converting the place to a co-op, said this week that he is no longer interested in buying although he would like to participate as a consultant in a tenant-led effort to do so.

In a written statement he sent to Town & Village on Tuesday, Guterman said: “I do not believe that I will participate in any auction sale for STPCV. I would rather be helpful to an organized and laser focused tenant association. I can already feel the excitement and lifecycle satisfaction.”

Though CWCapital never agreed to discuss business with him, and the Tenants Association ultimately chose a different partner in its own effort to bid, Guterman still pitched his co-op plan to tenants, which he said would have cost them, on average, $315 a square foot for their apartments. However, those numbers were based on a winning bid of slightly over $3 billion. Following the recent news that CW was foreclosing and its own parent company Fortress was preparing a bid of $4.7 billion, Guterman told T&V he was no longer sure he was still interested in buying.

At this time, CWCapital is still in talks with the mayor’s office and local elected officials, working with the ST-PCV Tenants Association on a plan that would maintain affordability for apartments in the complex that are still in fact affordable.

CWCapital declined to comment on Guterman’s statements, which were aimed at urging tenants to organize and even take legal action to demand a conversion and other changes in the community. The Tenants Association also declined to comment.

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Guterman launches website to outline ST/PCV conversion plan

Image taken from Guterman's new site, http://www.stpcvfacts.org

As he promised in an article in Town & Village published two weeks ago, developer Gerald Guterman of Guterman Westwood Partners has launched a website aimed at explaining his plan to convert Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village into co-ops.

The website (www.stpcvfacts.org) is going to be interactive, with residents encouraged to send in questions that can be answered by GWP, and if the tenants give their permission, posted online with the answers. Continue reading →

Developer Gerald Guterman to tenants: I’m a better candidate for ST-PCV conversion than Brookfield

Last year, a developer named Gerald Guterman pitched a plan to the Tenants Association to convert Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village to co-ops. Now that the TA has chosen to go with another suitor on a conversion plan, Guterman has sent out letters to every resident of the complex stressing why tenants should still be considering him as the conversion’s sponsor.

The letter says, in part:

“To the Residents of Stuyvesant Town/ Peter Cooper Village:

“Are you concerned about your home at Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village, as well as your own financial future?

“On November 30, 2011, to much fanfare, the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association (the Association”) announced that it had entered into a “partnership” with Brookfield Asset Management (“Brookfield”) to acquire, and convey Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village to tenant ownership. Gutterman-Westwood Partners, LLC (“GWP”) and its affiliates, learned about the partnership from the Association’s announcemnents to the press, despite the fact that we have long offered the Association the opportunity to enter into a more tenant-beneficial partnership with us. Continue reading →