Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association

Statement by Tenant Association President, Al Doyle:  “We have said consistently that we are willing to work with any entity that offers a plan consistent with our clearly stated goals:  To maintain the affordability of our community now and into the future, to enable tenants to remain in their homes as either owners or renters, and to ensure the integrity of the property’s configuration and a return to the high level of maintenance that was delivered by its original owners.”

Statement by Council Member Dan Garodnick: “We are disappointed that ownership of the property has degenerated into litigation, but we are not at all surprised.  As the creditor parties fight this one out, the tenants are prepared to join with the right partner to help us achieve the goals we have articulated.

“Those goals include: giving tenants an opportunity to buy their units, or remain as renters; protecting long term affordability for future generations of New Yorkers; ensuring quality maintenance services; preserving the historic configuration of the property and keeping open spaces from development; maintaining the property as a single, unified whole; and ensuring a long-term, stable ownership and capital structure.

“As the news of the day pivots from hedge fund managers to lawsuits, it bears remembering that Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were built – with considerable assistance from the City and State – to be the model of stable housing.  They were designed to be a place where “[f]amilies of moderate means might live in health, comfort and dignity in parklike communities, and that a pattern might be set of private enterprise productively devoted to public service.”[1]  They were supposed to be the place where the private sector showed its devotion to public service.  The creators of this property would feel no pride in the fact that the home to 25,000 New Yorkers is being treated like a pawn in a financial chess game. 

“No matter where this litigation leads, the tenants have a central seat at the table, and are prepared to offer their own restructuring plan.  They are working with their professional team at Moelis & Company and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in pursuit of a plan that respects not only the residents who live there today, but also those people of moderate means who aspire to live there in the future. 

“The tenants continue to be united and committed to seeing the process through to the right outcome.  The events of the past two weeks have made even more clear that no future owner can or will be successful without the support and participation of the tenant community.”