Final Roosevelt Island Main Street Master Leaseholder Terms and Island House Privatization/Ground Lease Extension To Be Discussed at RIOC Real Estate Committee Meeting On Monday April 4 - In Closed Executive Session
Main Street Image From Jones Lang LaSalle
According to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC):
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that a meeting of the Real Estate Development Advisory Committee of the RIOC Board of Directors will be held on Monday, April 4, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. at the RIOC administrative office, 591 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, New York.Discussion of the Stanford proposal will be held in public but the Main Street Master Leaseholder and Island House Privatization/ Ground Lease will not be held in public. An audio webcast of the public portion of the meeting will be made available soon thereafter (usually with 2 business days).
AMENDED AGENDA
1. Review of the Stanford University Proposal for Roosevelt Island and Discussion of the NYCEDC Applied Sciences Campus RFEI;
2. Chair's Motion for Executive Session to:
a. Discuss the Final Terms of the Main Street Commercial Master Lease; and
b. Review of the Privatization/Affordability Plan and Ground Lease Extension for Island House
More information on the Roosevelt Island Main Street Master Leaseholder and Stanford University proposal for Roosevelt Island available at previous posts. There is not much information available on Island House privatization except this from the January 8, 2011 Island House newsletter posted on their Tenants Association web site:
We have good news to report from the last days of Governor Patterson's administration: ESDC has indicated it has approved our affordability plan for conversion of our building. As a recap, Island House tenants voted overwhelmingly for such a plan in September 2009 and DHCR gave their approval afterward. This past year, we spent time nudging ESDC for their approval, along with the help of Assemblymember Micah Kellner. The next step is for the RIOC Board to approve a ground lease. After the ground lease is approved the owner, in coordination with the NYS Attorney General, will provide the red herring and black book offerings.UPDATE 4/6 - Audio webcast of public portion of meeting is now available.
This is good news for both renters (who will be able to stay at affordable rates) and buyers (who are interested in purchasing their apartments) because this provides long-term preservation. We will convene a tenants informational meeting soon.
20 comments :
I just saw this and I have to comment.
I live in Westview, we alot of the Tenants are very concerned what may happen here with our Buildings.
Our Task Force- "WVTF" has not commmunicated to the Tenancy here what may be happening soon with this development.
The latest rumor that some of us have heard is the current owner is or will file soon for dissolution from the M/L program.
This is NOT being communicated at all to the tenants.
The Task Force had Elections-that may not even hold up- as not many tenants voted.
There are only 4 Board Members.
They seem to be the only ones who get to know what is really going on with Westview and maybe a few other "negotiators".
They also may be in the process of trying to change the By-Laws- adopted in 2006 without telling the Tenants.
Some other documents may have been removed from their website.
Another Board member who resigned at the end of last year is trying to get back on the Board and also may have been "negotiating" as a non-Board Member.
WE, the Tenants- ALL of us- Legal tenants, non- subletter and illegal roomates want to know ASAP what is going on!!
Enough with the Secret Society meeting and non-communication in Westview- gone on way too long now.
We are talking about 360 apartments and tenants homes and lives being affected.
Come out of the dark and Call a meeting ASAP and tell the Westview Tenants what is really going on NOW.
Also- Shame on RIOC for this meeting being- "closed door".
This concerns all of Roosevelt Island- the Master Lease, Real Estate negotiations and the Tenants of Island House.
Time for RIOC, RIRA, Westview Task Force to come out of the dark and have total Transparency....
Very concerned Westview Tenant.
The beauty of democracy: you can run for office. Are you on the WVTF's board? If not, why not? If you are unhappy with how things are being run, why don't you get more involved?
Why is the Stanford "proposal" even up for a discussion and review at this point in time? Everything related to this topic is very, very preliminary. Stanford's "proposal" was one of 18 expressions of interest submitted to NYC. NYC isn't expected to issue a formal RFP (Request For Proposal) until the end of 2011. Why waste everyone's time on one university's "expression of interest"? Seems to me that there are many more pressing and relevant Roosevelt Island issues that require discussion and resolution.
@ Anonymous- I was involved years ago with the WVTF as a Member- I got tired of all the secrecy then and could not represent them and go before the Tenants and tell them nothing...
Why is the Real Estate Committee of the RIOC Board meeting in a Closed Session? Hummm...
The RIOC Real Estate Committee meeting Shouldn't be meeting in a Closed Session- what are they trying to keep from ALL the Residents of this small community.
So much for any "transparency".
Very concerning.
to all of you in westview keep your eyes wide open. watch rioc like a hawk,look what they did to us in eastwood .ron vass,of the eastwood building committee sold out the people of eastwood . over 2oo apartments have become vacant in the last 5 years because of ron vass.and rioc.people lose their apaRTMENTS.DONT LET IT HAPPEND TO WESTVIEW. KEEP ON TOP OF EVERY THING THAT GOES ON.RIOC WILL SELL YOU OUT .
who will be paid off this time
Obviously, the RIOC Board Members do not wish to have the details of votes on certain matters revealed because of the controversial nature of the decisions. Just as when Pres. Shane was dismissed, they prefer to let us keep guessing who has voted for & against a motion. They do not want the community to know for political reasons (i.e. so they can show their faces without shame afterward).
However, transparency is supposed to be the underlying principle in a democracy and politicians stand by their votes no matter how controversial those votes may be.
Oh yes - I almost forgot - we don't have a democracy on RI; how stupid of me.
We have rather a "corporate" structure with a Board of Directors that does not have to answer questions after secret votes, this way every Board Member can deny afterward that they voted for a controversial or unpopular action, or putting it bluntly, they did not vote as the majority of their "electorate" would have wanted them to vote.
Imagine if votes in Congress could be conducted in secret -- how convenient that would be for legislators! It will never ever happen; if it did, we could then say we have returned to the dark days of unrepresentative "government".
Nice to know you are having another friday night alone gregor. What is next for you this weekend? What a loser.
Take note, readers: Our friends the developers (or their minion) now describe pro-democracy Americans as losers; because they cannot come up with an intelligent or convincing argument against democracy, transparency in government, or fairness, (or at least one where they would not end up sounding like fascists) they have to resort to name-calling.
I leave it to the reader to decide who is the loser in the argument: Me - a pro-democracy American, or the commenter above, who prefers to have land-use decisions taken in secret and calls anyone who criticizes this a loser.
If I am a loser, what does that make the Fathers of our country - utter failures? For the developers or other similar businessmen who believe in money first and democracy when convenient, and who certainly don't care about the little guy, the answer must be yes.
I agree that Gregor is a pathetic internet troll. So to prove he isn't a loser home on a friday night he goes back online at 2am on friday night to respond.
Now lets go to the content of the argument. They are reviewing terms. Not voting. Where does it say anywhere that they are not going to vote on this in public at a board meeting. It doesn't.
Also it is clear from the above information that island house has agreed to an affordability plan. They voted on it. I know because I live there and what does this have to do with westviews board. If you have a problem with westview then call westview's board. I don't see anything that says westview.
The real question is if gregor had such a problem with this he wojld actually go to the meeting and complain, but he won't. Trolls are losers.
Can we stop the name calling please?
I understand it may be satisfying to call someone a name that you would not say in public or if your true identity was known.
However, the only thing name calling accomplishes is to encourage others to act similarly or worse and detracts from any valid point you are trying to make.
Thanks, Rick.
Mike - I am totally ignoring your off-the-topic comments because they waste our attention and contribute nothing constructive to the comment thread. It's immaterial in the end if I am pro-democracy and you are pro-fascist - or if I am a troll and you are a gnome. Who cares? No matter what you call me I'm unshakable as a believer in American democracy. It's sad that you apparently are not. It is a little infantile to call me a troll but if assigning epithets or catch-phrases makes you more comfortable or even makes you happy, who am I to deny you your fun or even peace of mind? Please, however, try to stay on topic.
Look, we've been working on achieving some sort of fair representation on RI for many years now. Perhaps you are not familiar with the MTG - it was because of the MTG's achievements after many years of effort that we got the number of resident Board members increased. This in theory should have afforded more protection to residents' interests (after they had been trashed as in no other community for many many years). Yet it appears the quasi-"representative" Board we have today may not be entirely responsive to the community.
As a long-time resident who is quite familiar with the political picture on RI, I say this: Closed door meetings which will probably include secret votes (even if that is not specifically spelled out in advance by RIOC) should no longer be taking place! If Board members must vote on a controversial question, let their votes be public so we all know where a particular Board member stands!
Transparency is the essence of representative government; otherwise what the heck was the MTG working for all these years? To get residents on the Board that can again hide behind closed door votes?
Secret RIOC Board meetings and votes set RI up for the kind of real-estate sell-outs that previously occurred. This is not the kind of governance MTG was working for all these years.
Not only do RIOC vote behind closed doors but they do not report
the conclusions reached. Are they working on a second vote ?
the rira is useless, rioc does not care what they have to say . all of you on the rira, need to get a life . you are all too bored with your life ,no one cares what the rira has to say
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