In its Oct. 22, 2009 decision in Roberts v. Tishman Speyer Properties, L.P., the New York State Court of Appeals, by a 4-2 margin, ruled that due to receipt of J-51 tax benefits, the owners of the Stuyvesant Town (“ST”) and Peter Cooper Village (“PCV”) housing complexes in Manhattan impermissibly decontrolled apartments under the luxury deregulation provisions of the Rent Stabilization Law (“RSL”).
The decision has sent shock waves throughout New York City’s real estate and financial communities. The primary questions generated by the decision are: what did the Court do, and what does it mean? The answer to the first question is set forth below. The answer to the second question is anyone’s guess.
