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Knickerbocker Village, a Depression-era affordable housing development in the Two Bridges section of the Lower East Side, has come under new ownership, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Wednesday.
L+M Fund Management, an affiliate of Larchmont-based L+M Development Partners, officially scooped up the 1,600-unit complex from Manhattan-based Stellar Management for $84.5 million April 25 after a 2022 lawsuit reportedly derailed the long-planned sale, records show. It’s unclear for how long Stellar had owned the complex, and it was previously owned by Apollo Global Management until 2007, records show. Some tenants at the 10-20 Monroe St. development — one of the first in the country to receive federal funding — fought the takeover because they argued it would encourage the new owners to kick out old tenants for higher-paying renters, The Real Deal reported.
But the suit was dismissed many months ago, according to the tenants’ attorney, Seth Miller, a partner at the firm Collins, Dobkin & Miller LLP, and the documents have now been signed. Under the new deal, which was executed by the Knickerbocker Village Tenants Association, L+M Fund Management and the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 100% of the rental units across the 12-building complex will remain permanently affordable. And unlike the structure under previous ownership, existing tenants will not be subject to arbitrary rent increases, according to James Yolles, a spokesman for L+M Fund Management.
Yolles added that the deal will “provide urgently needed capital improvements.”
For new residents moving into the complex, rents will be offered at a range of income restrictions with an average of 80% of the area median income, which for a family of three is $111,840. L+M Fund Management also secured nearly 400 Section 8 vouchers for the development’s lowest-income residents, Yolles said. And the firm plans to put $55 million toward renovating the sprawling, red-brick development, including by adding Americans With Disabilities Act accessible entrances, replacing the roofs and upgrading both its heating and electrical systems, he said.
Stellar Management did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
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Julianne Cuba , 2024-05-03 23:12:01
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