Timber Equities gets Waldo Ave. financing

Timber Equities secured a $19 million construction loan from Israeli lender Bank Hapoalim to build a four-story mixed-use project at 3893 Waldo Ave., overlooking Brust Park. Fieldston resident Jeffrey Torkin signed the loan documents. They were recorded in city property records Nov. 21.

Construction permits updated last year reveal the developer’s plans for a 30-unit apartment building with space for a community facility, a gym in the cellar, and a basement garage for 15 cars and 17 bikes.

Timber Equities’ Sam Spokony received a cold reception with Community Board 8’s land use committee when he presented the firm’s plans for the site in May 2019 just weeks after securing city permits to raze another beloved site nearby, Villa Rosa Bonheur on Spuyten Duyvil’s Palisade Avenue. Members of the local group, Coalition to Save Brust Park and Save Villa Rosa Bonheur, filed into that meeting.

“We want no demolition, no permits until you come back to this board,” Charles Moerdler told Spokony at the 2019 meeting. “But don’t even bother to return unless you are prepared to come in good faith and hold up with any demolition on this site.”

Construction permits were filed in early 2020 and appear to have gone through many revisions in the intervening years leading up to the construction lone obtained last month.

Help us solve the
Riverdale Diner mystery

The Riverdale Diner is still shuttered eight months after a fire ripped through the restaurant’s kitchen in the early morning hours Monday, April 11. Two New York City Fire Department firefighters were injured bringing it under control.

It has been something of a Bronx institution since Anna and George Kaperonis opened the diner in 1967. Even through the pandemic, masked servers continued delivering heaps of eggs and hash browns to a hungry late-night crowd.

But the husband-and-wife duo are nowhere to be found. Phone calls from The Riverdale Press went unanswered.

Work permits were filed in August for interior renovations of the building estimated to cost $33,000. They included kitchen repairs, plumbing work, and installation of new commercial equipment.

The permits also included a new fire suppression system, which must be inspected and approved separately by FDNY. The designs for the renovations were drawn up by Barbara Hess of East + West Architecture.

Property taxes are up to date at 3657 Kingsbridge Ave., according to city department of finance records.

The owners paid their $27,562 city property tax bill in full in July.

Five housing affordability
bills become law

A state legislative package promoting housing affordability and accessibility was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul Dec. 15.

Two of the laws amend New York’s real property tax law to authorize tax abatements for rent regulated properties in New York City and expand eligibility for rent freeze programs for seniors and people living with disabilities. They would now include tenants of former Mitchell-Lama buildings whose landlords have agreed to follow rent guidelines approved by the city’s Housing Preservation and Development department.

Another law is aimed specifically at low-income senior and disabled tenants and homeowners of properties located in Battery Park City, who will now also be eligible for those programs as well as SCHE and DHE — property tax breaks for seniors and disabled people who own a one- to three-family building or a condo or co-op apartment. The law also directs the Battery Park City Authority to extend its master lease until at least 2119.

“SCRIE, DRIE, SCHE, and DHE are core elements of our efforts to ensure that lower-income New Yorkers are protected from being displaced from their homes and from paying housing costs that make it difficult for them to afford other necessities,” said New York Sen. Brian Kavanagh. “I am proud that we are expanding these programs to cover eligible residents of Battery Park City and former Mitchell-Lama buildings like Independence Plaza North.”

A fourth part of the package authorizes the full amount of rental subsidies from local agencies such as New York City’s department of Housing Preservation and Development to be collected for certain rent regulated units even if the subsidies exceed the rents that are otherwise permitted under rent regulation. It will assist in preserving an important affordable housing stock. Collecting a subsidy above the regulated rent would not affect the amount a tenant has to pay out of pocket, and the rent would return to what the tenant was paying under rent regulation if the subsidy ceases.

The final part of the legislation allows court-appointed receivers to collect rents to address hazardous conditions at mismanaged properties outside of New York City where tenants have little recourse when landlords fail to respond to complaints about living conditions in their buildings.

This legislation will be crucial to preventing tenants from being evicted or having their lives disrupted by appointing a receiver who has full legal authority to address nuisance and unsafe conditions when landlords will not.

It also is meant to be fair to landlords by letting them demonstrate that there is no need for a receiver.

“While most landlords across our state work diligently to maintain their properties, there are still many others who put off necessary repairs to save a buck – often to the detriment of their tenants’ health and well-being,” said Sen. Sean Ryan.