421a Deal Breaks Down

While the bigwigs duke it out over congestion pricing, another Mayoral drive in Albany has hit rough waters: last-minute amendments that would permit the 421a housing tax break to apply to subsidized middle-class housing planned for Queens West.

A real estate executive said that negotiations between the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Assembly Member Vito Lopez broke down Friday because of a misunderstanding over the income levels that housing receiving the tax break should serve. (Mr. Lopez believes the tax breaks should be reserved for buildings with very low-income tenants while the Mayor believes that middle-class buildings should also be eligible in certain cases.) As a result, the executive said, any changes that would undo the problems that the Bloomberg administration sees with the state legislation that passed last month will have to wait until the fall.

We are awaiting word from H.P.D.

UPDATE: The state Senate is voting on 421a amendments this afternoon, according to a staffer, but they are comparable to last-minute changes made by the Assembly and do not reflect the alterations the Mayor was seeking.