Adding value. CRE, mostly NY, sometimes elsewhere. All gains are unrealized.
New York, NY
Joined June 2020
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One of the biggest misses in City of Yes: taking advantage of the 5% 'ultra-low energy' FAR bonus (granted if a building is 15% above energy code minimum) requires energy modeling.
You've got overworked DOB examiners studying extremely dense output, long turnaround times...
All when a Comcheck output - free, easy - gives you a similar number.
Makes you wonder if the bonus was structured to prevent uptake. Modeling can add months to a project and costs at least $10k to complete.
Amending the code to allow Comcheck for ULE is a no-brainer.
I have now taken five projects through ULE compliance and it doesn't get any easier. @NYC_Buildings is also changing some of their required deliverables, meaning that past workflow does not determine how your next review will go. I feel bad for the folks in the energy division.
Pretty crazy what happens when you let AI draw maps. Among many other interesting hallucinations, it reaches into our well of collective desire and invents a bridge from Greenpoint to Manhattan.
Ballot Proposal 4 is more complicated. Most of it is good, and demanding the DOB build a centralized system to process construction permits *seems* nice - after all, they are the only agency that has built a great native system, rather than buying enterprise dreck off the shelf.
…has a whole separate workflow for street trees that can also take a long time. MTA (which probably won’t even be included in this proposal) is using some sort of enterprise bloatware, charges by the hour for reviews, and takes forever. Is the problem really the ‘system’? Hmm.
Anyway, I’d say this is a good start but it’d be nice to have a much simpler revocable consent process, shot clocks at DOT for certain kinds of applications, and a general sense that putting stuff on sidewalks can be good (as long as there’s enough room to walk).
Notes on two NYC ballot proposals.
Ballot Proposal 1 is a great start - the revocable consent process is tedious. I would like to see the entire revocable consent process rethought, since it’s overcomplicated and many encroachments in the public right of way pose no issue.
Great deep dive on building materials that harkens back to an earlier time on RE Twitter.
The ‘craft beer for alcoholics’ trend is now totally out of control. Basically every tall boy from a ‘craft brewer’ is approaching 10% ABV. Even Bell’s - once a connoisseur’s quaff - is getting in on it. When folks drinks less, I guess you gotta focus harder on your tier-1s
Nice to hear, but ultimately will trend the wrong direction until serious reforms are made to the labor law, and some kind of tort reform. How many times our broker - *especially* with construction but also stabilized ops - tells me ‘would be a cinch to cover…except this is NY’
Used to be you could do $5m excess but no more. There are like 3 insurers in the small building construction market, the policies are rife with insane exclusions that you need to pay to remove. If you’re not reading your contractor’s policy carefully, good chance you’re naked.
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SCOTUS has asked for a response brief from city and state defendants.
Could this sneaky little lawsuit about ripeness in takings cases - one that NY's highest court didn't even bother to hear on appeal - play a role in future rent control jurisprudence?
It’s a credit to NYC (and perhaps a demerit to New Yorkers) that you can see the world premiere of a hype opera - not even in the worst seats, decent ones! - for not much money.
This one (Lincoln in the Bardo) had boring moments - they all do - but was overall good.
