Is 45 Wall Street an office tower, or an apartment building?þþIn the latest chapter of the building's complicated history, a janitors' union has filed a complaint with the city claiming that the building's owners are unfairly receiving tax breaks for the 28-story tower, which originally contained offices, then was converted to apartments, then was converted back to commercial space, and now is being reconverted into residences. þþThe union is questioning the special tax breaks for which the building qualified after its initial conversion to residential use in the mid-1990's. The incentives are used to encourage developers to build more apartments in the financial district.þþThe union claims that after an agreement was reached in 2001 to sell the building to the city as part of a doomed $1.4 billion project to build a new stock exchange, the owner — Rockrose Development Corporation — continued to benefit from the residential property tax breaks even as it was receiving up to $1 million a month from the city to keep the building vacant. þþÿThere's a double dip going on,ÿ said John P. Hamill, deputy communications director for the union, Local 32B-32J of the Service Employees International Union, which has tangled with Rockrose over the company's practice of not hiring union janitors for some of its residential buildings in Manhattan. ÿIn these gloomy economic times, when the city is closing firehouses and laying off workers, the idea that people are being paid twice for keeping a building empty is troubling.ÿþþThe complaint, filed by the union last Thursday, is an administrative action permitted in the regulations governing the city's 421-g tax incentive program, and not a court proceeding. þþKevin P. Singleton, senior vice president at Rockrose, declined to discuss the complaint or the tax incentives, citing a confidentiality agreement with city officials, but he called the union's document ÿanother strong-arm tacticÿ by the union to harass the company. þþCarol Abrams, a spokeswoman for the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development, said that if the city decides the tax benefits were awarded inappropriately, ÿwe will revoke them, and we will do so retroactively.ÿ þþRockrose bought 45 Wall Street in 1996 and spent $75 million converting the office tower into about 435 apartments.þþUnder the 421-g program, which was intended to bring round-the-clock activity to Manhattan's financial district, commercial buildings converted to residences in the downtown area qualify for property tax breaks that last 14 years. þþWhen the New York Stock Exchange threatened to move to Jersey City in 1998, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani put together a huge deal to demolish several buildings and build a new trading floor for the stock exchange, topped by a 50-story office tower. Critics complained about the mayor's plan to give $1 billion in public subsidies to retain an institution unlikely to leave New York.þþAlthough some tenants had just settled in, Rockrose struck a deal in 2001 to sell 45 Wall Street to the city for about $160 million, and emptied the building. þþAfter the Sept. 11 terror attack, enthusiasm for the new stock exchange waned and the project eventually died. The city returned the property to Rockrose and the company is again renting apartments there, offering up to two months free rent with a two-year lease. þþThe city will continue paying up to $1 million a month until 95 percent of the 435 apartments are leased. Mr. Singleton said 90 percent of the apartments have been taken. þþ
Source: NY Times
