ED Consolidated Edison Inc

New York City

Commissioners OK 10 New Landmarks

The Landmarks Preservation Commission has signed off on 10 new landmarks, including the Bergdorf Goodman building on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

The building had been under landmark consideration since 1970. The commission noted its modern classical design and its association with the famous department store.

Commissioners aimed to clear items that had been pending for up to 50 years. In all, the panel designated 27 of 95 properties that had been pending for at least five years. All but one of the others were removed from the calendar.

The exception: A massive Beaux-arts power plant on 11th Avenue and West 59th Street that is now a Consolidated Edison steam plant.

--Josh Barbanel

New York City

Court Rulings Cloud Deregulation Practice

An appellate court decision that landlords and tenants say could lead to the re-regulation of more than 100,000 market-rate apartments in New York City is headed toward a court showdown.

A lower appellate court rejected that finding in November, setting the stage for a broader review by the courts.

A one-sentence statement in the original appellate court decision appeared to wipe out decades of standard practice. Landlords have been allowed to deregulate vacant apartments when the new legal rent of an apartment, including legal increases, exceeded a certain threshold. The court found the threshold should be based on the typically lower rent of the last tenant. The current threshold is $2,700 a month.

"We do not interpret the contents of a single sentence in the decision...so broadly as to effectuate a sea change in nearly two decades of settled statutory and decisional-law," the new decision said.

Sherwin Belkin, a partner in Belkin, Burden, Wenig & Goldman LLP, which represented the landlord in the new case, said the Altman decision had caused uncertainty over the market value of apartment buildings with deregulated units.

John Gorman, who represented the tenant in new case, said he was surprised by the recent decision and noted that there were at least eight similar challenges to deregulated apartments underway. He said he would file an appeal In the Altman case a request for permission to appeal to the state's highest court was still pending.

--Josh Barbanel

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 21, 2016 20:19 ET (01:19 GMT)

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