Sandwicherie Replaces Fresh & Co.

Next week (January 7 to January 11),interior building material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors inside the building as well as roof work.

The following week (January 14 to January 18),interior building material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floor as well as roof work.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, January 5th for interior and superstructure related activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City.

PLEASE READ: YOU MAY HAVE RECEIVED A LETTER FROM THE CITY IN ERROR:
Tens-of-thousands of city residents eligible for a popular condo and co-op tax break have received letters from the city incorrectly stating that they no longer qualify, according to city civic and co-op board leaders.

Late last week, co-op and condo owners began receiving the letter from the city Department of Finance stating that a revamped condo and co-op tax abatement bill passed by the Legislature in January meant they could not collect it. “Our records show that this unit is not your primary residence, so your abatement will be phased out,” the letter states. The new legislation only allows owners to claim the tax break on their primary residence, and no longer allows the break on secondary homes.

The problem was that many people received the letter at their primary residence—which is indeed still eligible for the full break, according to Warren Schreiber, co-president of the Co-Op and Condo Council in northeast Queens. Mr. Schreiber said in his own co-op of about 200 residences, some 45 people had received the letters— about 35 of whom actually count those units as their primary residence. That could make a difference of about $1,000 per unit on upcoming bills if not corrected, he said.

“Some people have been in their homes, 20, 30 or 40 years and are getting these letters,” said Mr. Schreiber. “I think what happened is that the Department of Finance’s records are out of date, but it’s causing a lot of confusion and chaos.”

Nearly two years ago, Finance Commissioner David Frankel acknowledged the department had erred on 15,000 property bills the city mailed that July because of a “computer glitch.”

But in this case, a Department of Finance spokesman said the agency had used available data to determine which of the city’s 360,000 condo and co-ops would qualify for the abatement, and automatically enrolled 230,000 of them. In instances where there was not enough information, the agency sent out 130,000 of the letters to homeowners saying were not eligible for the tax break.

Mary Ann Rothman, the executive director of the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums, said she too had been contacted by several people who have received the letters—despite simultaneously receiving the state’s STAR tax rebate on the same property, which can only be claimed at one’s primary residence.

Still, she defended the city Department of Finance, arguing that it was simply sending the letters out to the large number of co-op and condo owners in an effort to make sure the city’s records were correct under the revamped program.

“This is making people nervous, but you have to remember that this is a total change in the way that the abatement is administered,” she said.

The letters the city sent to co-op owners directs them to send a form to an address in Maplewood, N.J., verifying that they are in fact receiving the abatement on their primary residence. The form is due on April 1, and city tax bills reflecting whether the abatement will still be granted will go out in June. Those no longer eligible for the abatement would retroactively have to pay 50% of the normal break in July, and would stop getting it altogether in July 2014.

But Mr. Schreiber said he was concerned that elderly property owners, those with disabilities or those who live elsewhere for the winter, would have their tax break incorrectly pulled.

The parameters of the new condo and co-op bill were originally hashed out in June 2012, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo at that time decided not to issue a message of necessity circumventing a three-day waiting period to pass it before the end of the legislative session. As a result, the city Department of Finance decided essentially not to collect hiked condo and co-op taxes under the expectation that the legislature would eventually pass the agreed-upon bill—which it finally did this January.

The revamped program offers greater benefits to middle-class owners, raising their tax abatements from 17.5% to, 26.5% next year and 28% in 2015 for properties whose average assessed value is less than $50,000. Units valued at more than $60,000 would get abatements of 17.5% over the next three years. Other previous aspects of the program—including one that allowed real estate speculators to claim abatement for secondary residences—were eliminated.

The sale of two units at Brack Capital Real Estate’s condominium conversion at 15 Union Square West may be set to shatter records for the sale of a single-family home on the square, the Corcoran Group’s Timothy Rothman told The Real Deal yesterday, since the new owner plans to combine them into one duplex spread. Rothman, a vice president at Corcoran on the Spiegelman team, represented a mystery foreign buyer in the deal for penthouse 11 and unit 10B at the building, which closed together yesterday for between $16 million and $17 million, he said, though he declined to give a specific price. The units were not on the market as a combination; their individual asking prices were $10.7 million and $6.5 million respectively. Rothman would not reveal the identity of the buyer due to a confidentiality agreement.

It’s back. The Holiday Market returns on November 18.

Here’s one problem we haven’t had in our bulding (yet): a bee swarm. Bee experts had to be called in last week to collect a swarm of bees at 4th Ave. and 14th. St. Weird.

From Eater.com:

The big former space of iconic Union Square diner the Coffee Shop will soon be split into four new retail spaces — three of which will be reserved for new restaurants, according to the property manager.

No leases have been signed yet, writes Eric Gural, executive managing director of Newmark Knight Frank, who would not comment on rumors that Chase Bank is a potential option to take over the space. Another source associated with the property confirmed that Chase Bank is in talks to take over the non-restaurant space, though he also said it is not final.

Brazilian-ish restaurant Coffee Shop, known for its fashionable staff and cultural gravitas via appearances on shows like Sex and the City, closed earlier this month after nearly 30 years at the corner of 16th Street and Union Square West. It was a trailblazer when it opened in 1990 and became a popular spot for celebrities, tourists, and locals seeking a place near the transit hub, particularly because its huge neon sign made it an easy landmark.

Owners said this summer that the restaurant had to close in part due to high rents, but Gural notes that there is still time on the restaurant lease, contesting that the departure was because of a rent hike.

Number one advocate of old New York Jeremiah Moss first posted the rumor that Chase Bank might replace Coffee Shop, calling it “yet another example of New York City soul snatching.” Besides the new tenancy, a tipster told him that the Coffee Shop sign might be redone to say “Chase”; Gural did not comment on this rumor. Incidentally, the tenant before Coffee Shop was an actual coffee shop called Chase, and Coffee Shop got its name from Chase’s neon sign, which it kept