MANHATTAN

In-house spa? Rooftop terrace? Parking garage? Bike storage? Gym? Those amenities are strictly 2015. At least 1 percent of Manhattan townhouses now have a “safe room,” and this amenity’s popularity is accelerating along with soaring property values, Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, tells AM New York. They’re starting to crop up in Brooklyn.

A safe room – a Kevlar- and steel-fortified redoubt inside an apartment that’s impervious to dirty bombs, terrorist attacks or rioting by the unhappy 99 percent – is starting to become “a part of the suite of amenities that makes a property part of the upper end of the market,” Miller says.

Safe rooms began to appear after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the concept was spread by the hit 2002 Hollywood movie “Panic Room.” The Occupy Wall Street movement and the stalking of such celebrities as Madonna, David Letterman and Gwyneth Paltrow have continued to feed the anxieties of the rich and famous. Though such a haven costs upwards of $500,000 to build – the door can weigh up to three tons – one highrise unit owned by a Saudi prince in the Heritage at Trump Place on Riverside Drive has three safe rooms.

What are the ultra-rich so worried about?

“They’re thinking of ‘what ifs,’” says Tom Gaffney, CEO of Gaffco Ballistics, a Vermont-based company that installs safe rooms. “The more you have, the more you have to keep safe.”

In a move to clean up the laundering of illicit foreign money flowing into American real estate, the U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it will begin tracking cash purchases of luxury residential properties in Manhattan and Miami-Dade County.

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FCEN) said that it will require U.S. title companies to identify cash purchasers by name. New York and Miami are two magnets for international real estate investors who, according to the government, may be “attempting to hide their assets and identities by purchasing residential properties through limited liability companies and other opaque structures.” Which is a nice way of saying shell companies.

“We are seeking to understand the risk that corrupt foreign officials or transnational criminals may be using premium U.S. real estate to secretly invest millions in dirty money,” said FCEN director Jennifer Shasky Calvery.

It's no news that the city can be tough on its many residents, but things are about to get much tougher for thousands of properties — co-ops and condos, included. According to The Real Deal, the city has filed "in rem" actions against not just apartment owners but also building owners in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. It's a move that could spell foreclosure for owners who owe taxes. There's still a chance to pay up or set up installment agreements. "The deadlines are September 22 in Manhattan, September 29 in the Bronx, October 6 in Brooklyn and October 13 in Queens," according to the article. And if they miss the deadline, those affected will still have 20 more days from their respective deadlines "to file answers in court." Gulp! 

A fire broke out early last week at a co-op on East 37th Street, leaving nearly a dozen people hurt. WABC Eyewitness News reported that the blaze "started with an unattended candle that had fallen from a table." Unattended candles, holiday decorations, heating equipment, and even deep fryers are all potential fire-starters in winter. Unfortunately for the people living in this Murray Hill co-op, a series of mistakes made a bad situation worse.

Updated Nov. 30 and Dec. 3 — An attorney in Manhattan is challenging the legal foundation of New York City's efforts to prosecute short-term renters, saying the term "illegal hotel" is a misnomer without basis in law and that the City routinely condones unconstitutional warrantless searches and other questionable actions. 

It seemed straightforward enough: The co-op board of 26 East 38th Street in Manhattan wanted to take possession of an apartment being sublet without permission. But the shareholder was in jail for running a tax-fraud scheme from home. And the subtenant, a gay-nightlife fixture and Fox News hairstylist, was passing himself off as the shareholder's lawyer. Whether the board was successful or not, one thing's for sure: This wasn't your usual repossession case.

The condo board at The South Star, a 147-unit high-rise in downtown Manhattan, thought they had solved their short-term rental problem when they sent out a letter carefully detailing the consequences of nightly or weekly listings. And for the majority of unit-owners, that was enough.

However, there's always one person who thinks the rules don't apply. So what do you do when a unit-owner adamantly refuses to comply with the bylaws? Throw the book at them. Metaphorically, of course.

Affordable housing took a blow last week after the state attorney general and the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal gave Southbridge Towers in the Financial District the green light to privatize. The Downtown Express reports that residents of the more than 1,600-unit complex will be able to sell their apartments on the open market starting sometime next year. According to the official appraisal, says the report, Southbridge apartments can go for from $300,000 to more than $1 million. Now it's up to residents to either opt-in and take full ownership rights of their apartments, or stay and be subjected to rent increases under rent stabilization rules. As disappointing as the decision is for opponents of privatization, there is a silver lining for senior citizens who are enrolled in the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) program. They will be able to continue living in their apartments, under the program's protection, the Downtown Express added.

Weren't we just talking about the Mitchell-Lama co-ops late last month? We sure were. Only 45,400 limited-equity co-op and rental apartments in 98 buildings remain, compared to 105,000 apartments in 269 buildings in 1955 when the program began. New York State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein (D - 34th District) sponsored legislation in December to build more. Great news for supporters of Mitchell-Lama. But back in the news this week is Southbridge Towers in the Financial District, which voted for privatization just under two months ago. Residents of Southbridge are divided on the issue, reports The New York Times, adding that the "state’s Homes and Community Renewal agency is reviewing the Southbridge vote for accuracy, but has no authority to override a shareholder decision or block privatization." If it goes through, and it's certainly looking like it will, it means the more than 1,600-unit complex would become "the largest Mitchell-Lama co-op in Manhattan to privatize at a time when the city is struggling to hold onto its dwindling stock of affordable housing." And that's bad news for Senator Klein, proponents of Mitchell-Lama and middle- and working-class New Yorkers who are left vying for whatever affordable housing is left.

If there were ever a doubt about the appropriateness of withholding building amenities from condominium owners in arrears, a recent court decision in New York City lays it to rest — and lays out what a condo board did right in the way it pursued one of the very few pieces of leverage available to compel recalcitrant unit-owners.

It's difficult to say if this is a first, but with no precedent cited other than the Business Judgment Rule, the Oct. 2 decision in The Columbia Condominium v. Ullah may well be a landmark confirming the legality of a common practice.