Roosevelt Island Westview Building Residents Frustrated At Getting No Status Update On Affordable Coop Conversion Offering Plan - Ownership And Tenants Task Force Reply Process Will Be Completed Soon

On a regular basis over the last several months Roosevelt Island Westview Building

 residents have asked about their building's 

                                                                                 Image From 2018 Westview Town Hall

privatization and affordable co-op conversion plan status, expressing frustration at not getting any information from the building ownership or the Westview Taskforce representing the residents:

 I am a tenant at the Westview. Although the deal on the building's privatization has been reached 2 years ago, nothing happened since then. And we get no info on the process from anyone....

Last week, I followed up on earlier inquiries asking Westview ownership representative David Hirshorn about:

... the status of Westview privatization and concerns of residents that they have not been informed about the current status of privatization efforts. Can you provide any details as to the current privatization status of Westview, when it may be completed and what are any obstacles holding it up... 

Mr Hirshorn replied:

While I am limited in what I can say about a pending offering, I can say that the offering plan process in every conversion or new development throughout the State involves the sponsor submitting draft materials to the Attorney General’s office and the AG’s office reviewing these submissions, asking questions and issuing comments – what the AG’s office refers to as “deficiencies.” The Westview process is no different than the process in every offering, except that in complicated offerings such as Island House and Westview, the process can be longer than in a more typical cookie cutter offering. Once the AG is satisfied with the submission, they issue what’s called an “acceptance letter” which means that the sponsor is then authorized to issue the Black Book. At that point the selling process begins. We successfully completed this same process in Island House and I am confident that we will soon complete the Westview review process too.

I certainly understand residents’ frustration with how the long the process has taken as I too look forward to moving forward. For those residents who do not intend to purchase their apartments, the Black Book does not change how their rent will be determined or the other terms and conditions of their rental. All of that is set forth in the Affordability Plan that they received at the time of withdrawal from the Mitchell Lama program – several years ago – and is the same as what is currently in effect and has been in place since withdrawal.  

We are now in the final stages of the offering plan process. Because the laws governing communications to residents during an offering process are severely limited, it is understandable that some residents are frustrated and concerned that things have stalled. However, this is not at all the case and the affordability terms for both home ownership and residents who continue to rent, remain unchanged from what was negotiated. Just as we did in Island House, we have and continue to work in close partnership with the Westview Taskforce and their attorneys, in moving forward with the offering. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Task Force leadership who were strong advocates for the Westview residents (improving upon the original affordability plan) and now pulling on the same oar with us as Westview moves into the next phase --homeownership. 

While any offering involves a lengthy process, Westview is an unusually complicated structure with an enormous amount of documents needing to be reviewed and processed. The Attorney General’s Office has been a great partner in this process and has been diligent and timely in their review. While the COVID shutdown certainly has not helped, I am confident that together with tenant association counsel, we and the Attorney General’s Office will soon be able to conclude the offering plan process culminating in a Black Book.

And received this Westview Task Force update last week too:

Dear Westview Tenants, 

The Westview conversion is moving forward and in progress. 

The Affordability Plan has been submitted to the NYS AG for approval and Sponsor and AG are currently working to resolve remaining outstanding details. 

Our lawyers are involved to ensure that agreed upon terms outlined in the Affordability Plan and approved by Westview tenants remain unchanged. 

 This is the normal process for a conversion plan to go through similar to the process IH went through before us. 

The past 6 months have been challenging for everyone and our conversion approval delayed as a result. 

We are disappointed with the slow pace of discussions between the Owners and NYS AG but remain hopeful that the remaining outstanding details will be resolved soon. 

Additionally, the Taskforce has been instructed by the AG's office not to comment on timing of the Black Book as these discussions are still ongoing. 

We can only confirm that the approval process is in progress and moving forward. 

The remaining work to be done is between the Sponsor and AG and out of our hands. At this point in the process we are all tenants, in it together, and waiting for good news. 

We hope this update is helpful and hope to have more news to share soon. 

Thank you for your patience and continued support. 

Please take good care, stay healthy, stay safe. 

Westview Taskforce

Read more about the Westivew Ground Lease extension, exit from Mitchell Lama Program and Affordability Plan at this 2018 post.