New York Magazine, December 4, 2006
By S. Jhoanna Robledo
Condo conversions are notoriously difficult, but the drama unfurling at Manhattan House, a 583-unit East 66th Street building that’s the epitome of the giant postwar white-brick, is reaching legendary proportions. Lawyers and legislators are hollering, and “animosity would not begin to describe what’s going on,” says Gail Amsterdam, who has lived in the building for sixteen years.
Tenants claim owners N. Richard Kalikow and Jeremiah O’Connor, who bought it last year for $620 million in the second-most-expensive sale of a rental building ever (topped only by the Stuyvesant Town deal), are muscling elderly rent-stabilized and market-rate tenants out the door. Those who’ve stayed gripe about renovations. One man well over 80 says his rent checks have gone uncashed; Amsterdam even blames the recent death of her uncle, Martin Burwick, on the resultant stress. (Publicist Steve Solomon, speaking for Kalikow and O’Connor, says “there’s absolutely no truth” to the harassment claims.)
It’s the stuff headlines are made of, and indeed the mess has made the papers repeatedly. But is it worth it for the developers? Their prices, around $1,500 per square foot, are pretty high, and questions linger over whether the cooling condo market will support them. A 1,482-square-foot two-bedroom on the seventh floor, for instance, is priced at $2.2 million; a 2,367-square-foot on a higher floor, $3.8 million. (Current tenants will get a slight discount.) In comparison, a 1,475-square-foot unit at the Philip Johnson–designed Metropolitan is listed in the offering plan at $1.68 million; a 2,200-square-foot three-bedroom on East End Avenue is $3.25 million. Even for a place that once housed Grace Kelly, those are ambitious numbers. “You’re going to be living with a lot of renters … My clientele would not be interested in that,” scoffs one uptown broker.
Furthermore, even with a planned makeover—roof deck, library, billiard room, fitness center—Manhattan House’s owners can’t do much about its modest ceiling heights and ungainly exterior. Appraiser Jonathan Miller, while noting the building’s appealingly large units, says the conversion “may fly, but there’s more competition out there.” Says Amsterdam, “If I was going to spend $2 million on a two-bedroom, I’d go to Park Avenue … You can teach an old dog new tricks, but an old dog’s an old dog.”
Solomon maintains “a lot of thought went into the pricing,” adding that he expects many residents to buy in. Some of those tenants wonder if they’re wanted, though. “We told them many times we were interested, and they [sent] us an eviction notice,” says software executive Ben Weintraub, who’s lived there for eleven years. Ditto Douglas Altchek, a doctor and 25-year Manhattan House resident who suspects that the developers would prefer the higher prices outside sales would bring. “I’m ready, willing, and able,” he says, sighing. “Why on earth they haven’t negotiated with me, I don’t know.”
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Manhattan House Condo War - Martin Burwick Story
Excepted from BIG DEAL; A Classic Candela With a Storied Past, But Few Takers by Josh Barbanel, New York Times
November 19, 2006
MARTIN BURWICK, a 97-year-old retired owner of a wholesale plumbing supply business, died of pneumonia on Monday and was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens. But because Mr. Burwick lived his last years at Manhattan House, a luxury apartment complex being converted to condominiums on East 66th Street, his death has become part of a bitter fight between tenants and the condo developers.
Mr. Burwick and his 90-year-old sister, Elizabeth Amsterdam, had lived in separate market-rate apartments at the Manhattan House, the site of the most expensive condo conversion -- at $1.1 billion -- on file at the state attorney general's office. They were fighting eviction by sponsors who hoped to remodel and sell their units.
But at the end of October -- after weeks of construction that tenants say spewed fumes, dust, debris and mice and rats throughout the building -- Mr. Burwick's family abandoned their legal claims to the two apartments. Mr. Burwick and his sister, who suffers from emphysema, moved out of the building and into a rental apartment on York Avenue. Before the move Mr. Burwick complained of shortness of breath. Five days after he moved out, his condition worsened and he was hospitalized two days later.
When someone of Mr. Burwick's advanced age dies of pneumonia, it is usually difficult to definitively link it to a single cause, doctors say. Yet Mr. Burwick's niece, Gail Amsterdam, a corporate recruiter who still lives in the building (in a rent-regulated apartment and, as such, is protected from eviction) said she believes the difficult conditions in the building, and the stress of the eviction contributed to his death.
Although he had difficulty hearing, and needed help walking, she said, ''he was never sick a day in his life.''
Ms. Amsterdam said that Mr. Burwick's final months in the Manhattan House were made particularly harsh because she had made a personal appeal on his behalf to N. Richard Kalikow, one of the partners developing the project. She had asked Mr. Kalikow to let him stay in his apartment because of his advanced age but was turned down. Mr. Kalikow's partner in the development is Jeremiah O'Connor Jr.
Mr. Kalikow referred questions about Mr. Burwick to Steve Solomon, an executive vice president at Howard Rubenstein Associates, a public relations company. ''We have no idea what caused Mr. Burwick's death,'' Mr. Solomon said. ''We do know that we have taken every precaution possible to create the safest and healthiest environment at Manhattan House during this reconstruction period.'' Mr. Solomon added, ''The plan remains on schedule.''
Tenants at many buildings undergoing conversion to condos have complained that city and state officials do not pay enough attention to the needs of people living in buildings that have been turned into construction projects. At Manhattan House, tenants complained about the handling of asbestos in the building and are pressing to have their own engineer examine the work there.
Dr. Harrison Bloom, a senior associate at the International Longevity Center and a specialist in geriatric medicine, said that construction dust and debris could spread disease and requires careful planning, especially around older people. But he noted that the stress of an eviction or another crisis could also be a contributing factor to pneumonia. ''There is good evidence that, at any age, stress can lower immunity and therefore predispose someone to infection,'' he said.
November 19, 2006
MARTIN BURWICK, a 97-year-old retired owner of a wholesale plumbing supply business, died of pneumonia on Monday and was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens. But because Mr. Burwick lived his last years at Manhattan House, a luxury apartment complex being converted to condominiums on East 66th Street, his death has become part of a bitter fight between tenants and the condo developers.
Mr. Burwick and his 90-year-old sister, Elizabeth Amsterdam, had lived in separate market-rate apartments at the Manhattan House, the site of the most expensive condo conversion -- at $1.1 billion -- on file at the state attorney general's office. They were fighting eviction by sponsors who hoped to remodel and sell their units.
But at the end of October -- after weeks of construction that tenants say spewed fumes, dust, debris and mice and rats throughout the building -- Mr. Burwick's family abandoned their legal claims to the two apartments. Mr. Burwick and his sister, who suffers from emphysema, moved out of the building and into a rental apartment on York Avenue. Before the move Mr. Burwick complained of shortness of breath. Five days after he moved out, his condition worsened and he was hospitalized two days later.
When someone of Mr. Burwick's advanced age dies of pneumonia, it is usually difficult to definitively link it to a single cause, doctors say. Yet Mr. Burwick's niece, Gail Amsterdam, a corporate recruiter who still lives in the building (in a rent-regulated apartment and, as such, is protected from eviction) said she believes the difficult conditions in the building, and the stress of the eviction contributed to his death.
Although he had difficulty hearing, and needed help walking, she said, ''he was never sick a day in his life.''
Ms. Amsterdam said that Mr. Burwick's final months in the Manhattan House were made particularly harsh because she had made a personal appeal on his behalf to N. Richard Kalikow, one of the partners developing the project. She had asked Mr. Kalikow to let him stay in his apartment because of his advanced age but was turned down. Mr. Kalikow's partner in the development is Jeremiah O'Connor Jr.
Mr. Kalikow referred questions about Mr. Burwick to Steve Solomon, an executive vice president at Howard Rubenstein Associates, a public relations company. ''We have no idea what caused Mr. Burwick's death,'' Mr. Solomon said. ''We do know that we have taken every precaution possible to create the safest and healthiest environment at Manhattan House during this reconstruction period.'' Mr. Solomon added, ''The plan remains on schedule.''
Tenants at many buildings undergoing conversion to condos have complained that city and state officials do not pay enough attention to the needs of people living in buildings that have been turned into construction projects. At Manhattan House, tenants complained about the handling of asbestos in the building and are pressing to have their own engineer examine the work there.
Dr. Harrison Bloom, a senior associate at the International Longevity Center and a specialist in geriatric medicine, said that construction dust and debris could spread disease and requires careful planning, especially around older people. But he noted that the stress of an eviction or another crisis could also be a contributing factor to pneumonia. ''There is good evidence that, at any age, stress can lower immunity and therefore predispose someone to infection,'' he said.
CONDO CRAZE
New York Post, Page Six(TM)
November 16, 2006 -- Tenants resisting the conversion of Manhattan House at 200 E. 66th St. (once home to Grace Kelly) into condos blame it for the death of a 97-year-old resident. Martin Burwick, whose unregulated lease would have been up in April 2007, died of pneumonia on Monday, causing some activists to blame the stress of eviction. "A man is dead, and it's from the conditions in the building," one tenant said. A spokeswoman for Manhattan House, owned by Richard Kalikow and Jeremiah O'Connor, denied the claim: "We are all very sorry to hear about the death of the 97-year old gentleman. We have taken every precaution to ensure the safest and healthiest environment for the tenants."
November 16, 2006 -- Tenants resisting the conversion of Manhattan House at 200 E. 66th St. (once home to Grace Kelly) into condos blame it for the death of a 97-year-old resident. Martin Burwick, whose unregulated lease would have been up in April 2007, died of pneumonia on Monday, causing some activists to blame the stress of eviction. "A man is dead, and it's from the conditions in the building," one tenant said. A spokeswoman for Manhattan House, owned by Richard Kalikow and Jeremiah O'Connor, denied the claim: "We are all very sorry to hear about the death of the 97-year old gentleman. We have taken every precaution to ensure the safest and healthiest environment for the tenants."
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